


One For Sorrow

by Ellectrix



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Action/Adventure, Adventure, Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, Alternate Universe - Medieval, Curse Breaking, Dark Magic, Epic Battles, Fairy Tale Curses, Fairy Tale Elements, Falling In Love, Fluff, Magic, Multi, Mythical Beings & Creatures, POV Multiple, Pining, Plot Twists, Prose Poem, Quests, There's actually a plot in this one!, Troll Culture (Homestuck), Trolls
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-24
Updated: 2020-10-27
Packaged: 2021-03-01 05:28:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 82,436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23300095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ellectrix/pseuds/Ellectrix
Summary: A half-human, half-bird crashes in an irate mutant's forest backyard. Nurturing an injured mystical creature back to health turns into something said troll did not sign up for in more ways than one.-"One for sorrow,Is what they say,But is it your dismay,Or for the crow?"
Relationships: Dave Strider/Karkat Vantas, Rose Lalonde/Kanaya Maryam
Comments: 48
Kudos: 169





	1. The Murder Of A Crow

**Author's Note:**

> The hcs included in this story are:  
> \- The higher the caste, the colder the blood  
> \- Long living highbloods  
> \- Mutants have the same lifespans as humans  
> \- Lowbloods live only slightly longer than humans  
> \- Magic exists in the form of specialized 'aspects'  
> \- Horrorterror magic is the darkest form of 'dark magic' and isn't constrained to a single aspect ((each aspect has the capacity to be 'dark' if used to harm others, void being the most susceptible but not guaranteed))  
> \- Everyone is capable of magic, but only a select few can afford to be educated thoroughly on the subject and pursue a livelihood in it  
> \- The troll race is known for their brutality and self-interest ((a stereotype perpetuated by the highblood ruling class, but many exceptions exist))  
> \- Karkat has reached his adult moult and is taller than Dave  
> \- Kanaya is also taller than Rose  
> \- John and Jane are siblings while Jake and Jade are siblings  
> \- Karkat is 12 sweeps old, Kanaya 12 and half, Dave and Rose are both 24  
> ((More may be added if I miss some of them))

┍━━━━━━━━━━━━━┑

_“One for sorrow_

_Is what they say_

_But is it your dismay_

_Or for the crow?”_

┕━━━━━━━━━━━━━┙

The woods are stupid. And no one can convince you of it otherwise. Why you chose to live in it is beyond you, but it’s far from the first time past you has screwed you over and present and future you continue to face the consequences because of it.

Past you is stupid, future you is a prick, and the only decent person in this whole circle of stupidity is present you.

The only saving grace of your situation is the fact that the alternative is probably death. But it’s only cold comfort when you still have to do so many things to maintain your living space. It’s surprisingly hard to keep a forest clearing _clear_ and stop wild foliage from totally overtaking your small forest cottage of a hive. Not to mention spending most of your time foraging and hunting for food before daylight escapes you completely. If you’re lucky, you won’t even have to fight off another stupid magical beast of the week from stealing your shit.

Whoever said being a forest-dwelling troll is any fun for anyone? It’s not fun for you, it’s not fun for the woodland creatures, and you hypothesize it’s not fun for the plants either. You all live in harmonious tolerance of one another and your way of life. You only hunt and take what you need to, and most creatures give you the courtesy of steering clear of your hive. _Most_ creatures.

Nothing about living away from civilization is magical like those fairytale witches would have you believe in their stories. That is unless you actually _like_ nature. Which you don’t.

The only good thing to come from living a solitary life in the woods is that you always have something to do. You have so many chores that need to be maintained on a daily basis. A familiar routine you can count on being mostly stable, predictable, and safe. 

And, you know, being alive is also a bonus reason in the positive zone.

As a troll hailing from a society that would rather see you dead, you didn’t have much of a choice in your living conditions. You were always going to end up alone, whether you wanted to or not. And honestly, being alone is both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, you don’t have to deal with the usual town dumbfuckery that tends to happen. On the other, you’re eternally stuck with your own dumbfuckery with no one to at least share the burden of it with.

You do get your needed dose of social interaction every now and again though. There’s a small village nearby, to the south of where you reside. And by nearby, you mean it usually takes two weeks of travelling on foot to get there.

You would know because you briefly passed by it when you were fleeing the original city you came from. You only settled down here because it’s the farthest you could get away from the Alternian Empire without crossing into the Human Territories. And because there was already a dilapidated hive just waiting for you to reconstruct and live in. 

You still visit the village once every few perigees to stock up on other things you wouldn’t naturally acquire in your part of the woods. You got sick of unseasoned mushroom soup pretty quickly after eating it three meals a day for five days straight.

But you’ve since learned to cook other things after three sweeps of being a forest dweller. You’ve learned a lot of handy skills due to your circumstances and your environment.

Another good thing about living in the forest. Being forced to learn skills you otherwise wouldn’t need to unless you had an actual desire to pursue a career where those skills would be useful. Which, again, you don’t. But wanting to live tends to outweigh your desire to just wither away and die when starvation starts hitting you the hardest.

Anyway, the point of the whole tangential tirade is that living in the woods sucks. Living in the woods sucks and no one understands.

It especially sucks more when you inevitably come across stupid magical creatures who get themselves injured for some dumb reason and you’re just not spineless enough to leave them to die on their own in the forest. You wish you could say it’s because it’s what they would do for you if they found you bleeding to death on the ground, but no.

Nobody would be dumb enough to save a mutant like you.

You’re a weird troll ousted from the civilization you’re supposed to belong to because you have problems like _common decency_ , like some _human troll hybrid thing_.

So, of course, you take home things you probably shouldn’t if you had any form of hindsight or common sense.

Of course, you do.

»»———— ☽ ————««

You’ve seen a lot of shit in your time in the forest. Lusus Naturae comes in all shapes and sizes, with weird animalistic quirks and designs that seemingly have no function or contradict with another limb that does the opposite fucking function. It makes you wonder what their life is like and how evolution fucked up so badly for some of them.

You’ve seen deers with horns as complex as the trees they roam with a tail reminiscent of a rattlesnake’s. You’ve seen big cats who howl at the moon like wolves and ears so long they drag along the ground they walk on. You’ve seen a fox with the eyes of a goat and ridiculously long legs that baffle you on how it even fucking walks. And sometimes, on rare occasions, you’ve seen hybrids of hybrids. It’s just as weird as all the others, but borders on being terror-inducing and monstrous. At least most are docile, with a level of intelligence high enough to understand the concept of 'live and let live'. Something you can’t give to some trolls who are supposed to have more complex pans.

Nature is all shades of fucked up the longer you stay inside it. You stopped questioning the weirdness a long time ago and simply accepted that this is how the world works, where conquerors and explorers don’t tread. But your newest discovery while foraging makes you question everything again.

You're just minding your own business before your discovery. Foraging for herbs and wild berries. Then you hear something faint.

At first, you think it was another woodland lusii rustling in the underbrush. Nine times out of ten, that’s the case. But you stay on high alert because even if you’ve been living alone for three sweeps now in relative peace, it could always change so suddenly in a way you least expect it to.

And you swore to yourself you’d never let yourself be caught off guard again because of complacency.

But when it happens again, in the corner of your peripheral with a flash of something black, your hand immediately goes to your sheathed dagger. It's still midday and the golden rays filtering through trees are far too bright for anything to be _black_. It’s a colour you don’t often see naturally in nature. Especially not lusii. They’re white and almost always give off an ethereal glow under the sun.

Therefore, your mind’s first instinct is to think that someone is stalking you in the woods. So you wait for another hint of movement in the otherwise still hush of the forest.

And then it happens again. But this time, you're actually paying attention so you're able to catch where the soft noise is coming from and cautiously approach to investigate it. You keep your dagger out, in the hopes of catching whoever, or whatever _it_ is off guard.

But when you do, you find it’s far from anything you ever expected to find today.

It’s hard to make out _what_ exactly you’re looking at.

It’s a big mass of black, more specifically, a mass of black _feathers_. Far bigger than any bird should be, especially for what you assume is a human bird, because of their coloured feathers. It’s simply laying on the dirt and grass, with feathers all around it. A quick glance around the rest of your surroundings tells you the story of how it possibly made it to the forest floor.

Stray black feathers litter the trees above, stuck in stiff leaves and spiny branches, all coming from the north. The best guess you have is something, or someone, struck it down and the creature tried to get away with difficulty before finally crashing.

Your observation is proven right when your attention is pulled back to it- no, _him_. The mass of bird feathers shifts again in a half-hearted attempt at flapping. You finally see the body the unbelievably large bird's wings were hiding and are totally baffled to the point of almost tumbling back on your ass after being completely surprised by your discovery.

It’s a _human_. Or it was. It is? A human. Who’s also a bird. 

You don’t even know how that’s possible. You think you don’t want to know either.

The creature, human-bird-hybrid-thing (you really need to come up with a better word for it) looks very much like a bird in everything else but his head and face. His body is reminiscent of the structure of a human. Only it’s covered by feathers that reach all the way around his neck before slowly shortening around the jawline and nape to give way to proper human skin and unnaturally white-blond hair. A stark contrast to the jet black feathers that shine with a hint of blue under the sunlight.

Other than that though, he’s more _bird_ than _human_. His arms are covered with long flight feathers, pinion and all. His hands and fingers are transformed to look more bird-like, all spindly and scale-like, complete with sharp talons where fingernails should be. He’s even more bird from the waist down, his legs shaped like a bird’s in that strange angle. His feet are even sharper than his hands, with big hooked talons you can imagine can do a lot of damage if he wanted to.

A barely audible pitiful whine brings your attention back up to his face. He’s staring at you with sharp, red eyes, pupils dilated and focused. He looks like he’s on high alert at your presence, feathers shifting and flapping to seem bigger than he is.

He’s gravely hurt. An arrow is sticking on his side and another one is lodged in the space where his arm meets his shoulders. From the length and look of it, you can tell it’s an arrow from a hunter’s crossbow.

When you try to get close, you see him attempt to shift away. His hind legs come up protectively with talons pointed at you, before faltering and flinching at his wounds and stopping all movement altogether. A low growl emits from him, and that’s when you realize you’re still holding onto your dagger, with the blade facing downwards. You mentally facepalm at yourself. Of course, he thinks you’ve come to finish the job of the fucker who tried to shoot him down.

Sighing, you sheath your dagger back and raise your hands in a placating manner to show that you don’t mean him any harm. “I’m not going to hurt you, alright? You’re lucky you crashed in my neck of the woods because literally anybody else wouldn’t have hesitated to finish you off and taken you back to their hive as dinner or worse, cut off and mount your head on the wall as a-”

He attempts to get away from you again with wide, panicked eyes and you curse because, of course, that would spook him. What the fuck were you thinking, Karkat? Why do you have to be so shit at comforting in general? “Shit- fuck- I mean, not that _I_ would- I mean, not that _trolls_ would- but like- ugh. Can you just hold still? You’re going to make it worse and I’m here to _help_.”

You can see his chest rise and fall in rapid succession, eyes still wild and following your every movement as you slowly inch closer. But to your surprise, he doesn’t attempt to get away anymore.

When you get close enough to kneel beside him, you take a moment to examine his injuries before deciding on what you should do. You can’t do much in the middle of the forest since you didn’t exactly bring medicine in anticipation of coming across yet another injured mystical creature. Right now, your main priority is getting him back to your hive where you have more resources at your disposal, but not in this state.

“Alright. I’m going to carefully pull the arrow out of your side, okay? And then I’m going to bandage it to stop you from bleeding out. It’ll be easier to carry you back to my hive that way.” You explain to him calmly as you roll your shirt sleeves up in preparation for pulling out the arrow. You don’t want any blood to get on your clothes as much as possible. Red blood is such a fucking bitch to clean, made even harder when you have to ration your washing materials because you need it to last you until the next time you visit the village.

He doesn’t say anything, just a slight nod of his head and a close of his eyes, body completely still. With careful hands, you pull the feathers apart so you can pull the arrow out as cleanly as you can. With one hand steadying the spot where the arrow is lodged into flesh, and the other firmly around the body of the arrow itself, you give it a swift pull and successfully pull it out, despite the painfully shrill squawk of pain the creature makes.

With a casual throw, you toss the offending object off to the side. Then you quickly take off your cloak and shred the fabric to use as makeshift bandages to stop the bleeding. Something the arrow was previously doing.

“See? That wasn’t so bad, now was it?” You say when you finish your work. But when you glance over at him, you see him glaring daggers at you. “What? You’re not even going to thank the troll who saved your life?”

He then averts his eyes and looks somewhat embarrassed, a light dusting of red easily distinguishable from his pale skin. Curiously, he continues to stay quiet.

With a sigh, you stand up and clean your bloodied hands on the remainder of the cloak you tore apart. A shame, but it’s not like you’re lacking cloaks back in your hive.

“Can you stand?” You question him when he stays laying down on the ground. He looks back up at you with what you can only describe as a curiosity in his eyes. Then, he lifts one of his talon-like fingers to point at a tree not far from where the two of you are and it’s clear that a sizable branch on it has been broken off. Huh. You didn’t notice that the first time. Then he points to his left leg and shakes his head.

With yet another sigh, you offer him your hand, which he only stares at dumbly. You roll your eyes. “I’m offering you my hand to help you stand up so you can climb on my back. So unless you actually want me to leave you here until someone else finds you and does what I couldn’t, you’d do exactly as I say. I don’t have a lot of patience and you can bet your ass I won’t look back when I do decide to leave you behind.”

He huffs indignantly at your comment but takes your hand nonetheless, wincing in pain at the arrow still on his shoulder. Then he tries to stand up using just one leg. You help him as best as you can before kneeling down on one knee so he’s able to jump onto your back.

He’s cautious with his movements but does as you asked, climbing on and gingerly wrapping his arms around your neck while being careful with his taloned fingers. It’s a bit awkward, with the feathery mass that he is, but you make it work. “Gog, you’re heavier than I thought. If you’re half-bird, shouldn’t your bones be hollow or some shit?” You grunt when you stand up, hefting him up on your back and being careful not to disturb his sprained leg.

He chirrs quietly in annoyance at you and lightly flicks you with his talons. “Ouch! Be careful with that shit, you’re lucky troll skin is tougher than your weird soft human skin. Are you even human? What the fuck are you anyway?”

He doesn’t give you a reply, you simply feel him rest his head on yours. You get the sense that even if he wanted to, he can’t. From what you remember of the human anatomy lessons from your brief time in the school feed system, you’re pretty sure humans shouldn’t even have the necessary organs to make the bird-like sounds he’s been making ever since you stumbled upon him. Especially when he doesn’t even have a beak.

The trek back to your hive feels longer than it probably is. The heavy load on your back is probably the thing that’s slowing you down, but you did stray farther than your usual circuit when foraging.

By the time you make it back, the sun is already setting in the horizon, bathing everything in a saturated orange glow. If there’s one thing you genuinely love about your place of residence, it’s that you have perfect painting worthy scenery literally anywhere you look, at any time of day. Sadly, you don’t have the aptitude needed to capture the beauty of your surroundings in an actual painting.

Now that you’ve taken this bird person home and wasted a good amount of your time to do so, your chores for tomorrow just tripled. On top of making up for things you didn’t get to do today, now you have an injured creature to look after. This is an overall waste of your energy and resources. You can’t even be sure he’s willing to stick around to repay you once he’s healed.

Gog, the things you pay for because of past you's stupid soft spot for helping dumbasses who don’t deserve your help. You hate that raging nookwipe with a renewed passion.

When you open your door and deposit him into your only bed in the bedroom, you find that the blackbird has fallen asleep. How he was able to fall asleep during your trek through the forest accompanied by your usual grumbling and soliloquies is beyond you. But here he is now, in your bed, as asleep as a grub rocked to sleep.

You can’t even force yourself to be mad about the situation you’ve placed yourself in. Even if this means you’ll be sleeping on the floor tonight, with only the animal skins as your carpet separating you from the cold stone floor.

Only now, looking at him with that peaceful expression on his face, do you wonder so many things about him. If he has a name, what happened to him, and more concerningly, how long has he been on the forest floor, immobile and injured, waiting for death. When you think about that, something about his sorry state makes it hard for you to be mad at him.

Curse you and your stupid empathy.

Even if you did intend to attend to his wounds as soon as you got back to your hive, you just can’t bring yourself to disturb his sleep now. Not when he could’ve forced himself to stay awake because death felt so imminent for him, with no hope of help coming.

So you let him sleep and decide to carry on with the things on your to-do list today, even if you’ve only got a slim amount of daylight left.

»»———— ☽ ————««

You can already feel the crick in your back by the time you wake up to the chirping of birds the next morning. You’ve pulled together your very minimal extra sheets and blankets to make sleeping in front of the fireplace as comfortable as possible. While the warmth of the fire was nice to keep the chill of the night out, it still wasn’t enough to justify sleeping on the floor every night. You’d exchange a comfortable bed for a bit of cold at night.

Yawning and stretching, you get up from your sleeping spot and start to clean up your things. Once you’ve put things back in its proper place, you enter your room to check on the creature you’ve taken home. Normally, you’d go straight outside to take inventory of your food stocks. Then you’d decide where you should head out next to refill your supply. It’s imperative you keep your supply high for the coming winter. While it tends to be fairly mild considering you’re not _too_ far up north, flash blizzards can still happen and you need to be prepared.

But you’ve still got plenty of days to do that. It's only late August, after all.

When you enter your room, you find him sitting on the bed with his back turned to you. You knock softly on the door to catch his attention, and the instantaneous way he turns his head your way startles you for a moment. 

“How are you?” You ask as he shifts from his original position. He tries his hardest not to flinch and wince when he moves the wrong way, putting pressure on his wounds.

He opens his mouth to respond but when only a low caw comes out, he immediately shuts it, averting his eyes and looking grim. Instead, he makes a motion with his hands that looks like he’s writing something.

You raise a brow and move over to your writing desk, pulling out an empty book and your ink and pen. Inks tend to go for a high price, but the nice lady at the village is kind enough to let you pay using other things when you can’t afford to use your earned coin to pay for anything else but the necessities. You like to write from time to time, but it’s not like you can do anything with it. It’s just a nice thing to do when you can actually afford the free time, even if it does give you a bittersweet feeling when you remember who taught you how to read and write in the first place.

You hand over the items to him before going to retrieve your medical supplies from a chest while he writes. By the time you’ve pulled a chair next to the bed and gotten proper bandages and ointments to soothe the pain, he’s given you a response.

In flowing cursive is a simple question you didn’t expect. “Why did you help me?”

You look back at him before shrugging, motioning for him to show you the side where the other arrow is still sticking out. You’re not too worried about infection, a close friend of yours has supplied you with an invaluable salve that’s guaranteed to heal any wound. You know, because it has saved you countless times before.

“No particular reason.” You tell him, giving him back the book before going to work with the arrow. Going through the same motions as before, you easily pull out the weapon without much of a protest from him this time.

He rolls his eyes at you, chirping lowly much in the same way he did before and you can feel the undercurrent of annoyance in it. When he’s written up a response, he shows you.

“No really. Why? Nobody just _does_ things without expecting something back.” You can’t help but laugh a little at his need to italicize his words to get his point across. He glares at you.

You just shrug again, applying the medicine onto the wound once you’ve stopped the bleeding. “At least you’re not as dumb as an actual bird.” You tell him jokingly. He flicks you on the forehead again. “What did I say about the gogdamn talons? Ugh, fine. I honestly don’t know, alright? It’s stupid and dumb, but for some reason, I just can’t leave injured animals I find alone. There’s really no other reason but a selfish need to avoid feeling guilty even if I’ve been taught all my life not to care about anyone else but myself, like a lot of other trolls. It's not noble, and it's not sinister. Nothing more, nothing less.”

He eyes you with that same caution like he doesn't believe that’s all there is to it. So before he can ask you another question, you decide to ask him one of your own. Since, so far, he still hasn’t answered any of the previous ones you’ve asked. “Who are you anyway? Have you got a name? Because I’m not entirely opposed to continuing to call you ‘dumb bird’. Feathery asshole has a nice ring to it too.”

He huffs indignantly once again, writing something down quickly before showing you. “Dave.”

You laugh out loud. He caws in clear protest before shifting so his back is facing you once again. “Seriously? Your name is Dave? I was half expecting some mystical fairytale bullshit name since you’re half-bird and all, but _Dave_? Is it Just Dave or is it Dave The Bird?”

Dave chitters angrily at you and refuses to face you. “Fine. I guess I’ll just have to patch up your leg another time, then.” You tell him, beginning to clean up your medical set up. When you stand up from your chair, only then does he only chance a glance back at you to confirm whether or not you’re actually going to leave him all on his own.

You are.

He huffs once again and when you look back before leaving the room, you find he’s still stubbornly keeping his back to you.

His name is Dave, he’s not completely dumb or illiterate, and he’s stubborn. That’s all you know about the bird you’ve inadvertently decided to keep in your hive.

»»———— ☽ ————««

The next time you check on him is at night. If you were human, you’d have a hard time navigating in the dark. But since you’re not, it’s easier for you to see things even when night has taken over. Still, you keep plenty of candle lamps around specific places in your hive, places where you’re sure plants won’t be near enough to catch fire. You’ve also welded some of the lamps in place so it won’t be easily knocked over by some strong winds. And you also make sure to blow out each and every one of them when you don’t need their light anymore. You can’t afford a forest fire giving away your location to the Empire.

You did leave matches for your bird roommate in the middle of the day before you set out into the forest so he can light the candles himself if he wanted to. Last you saw him, he was still sulking with his back turned to you.

You’ve been out all day, catching up on work you missed when you picked up Dave yesterday. Most of them are simple, menial tasks, like hacking down pesky vines, keeping your hive clean both inside and out, foraging to keep up your food supply, going out to the nearby waterfall to clean your laundry, and get a fresh supply of water.

Although, you’re running a little later than you usually would. Normally, it wouldn’t be a problem. But when you come back home, you wish you would’ve done it earlier.

Your bedroom looks like a cyclone just passed through it, with your dresser on the floor and the cabinets spilling clothes like its blood spilling from a wound. Your bed sheets and blankets are all mixed up in all the clothing and one of your pillows has clear talon rips, the feathers inside littering the ground. But what’s worse is that the ink for the pen that is splattered _everywhere,_ making it look like someone was just murdered. You’re surprised the candle lamp sitting on the other drawer beside your bed wasn’t knocked off and started a fire to go along with this mess.

In the middle of it all is Dave, tangled in ink-soaked clothes, spots of black smearing his face. His head turns to you, face upside down when he hears you walk in.

For a long beat of silence, you stare at him in utter bewilderment. “Oh my gog. What _the fuck_ did you do while I was gone?!”

He squawks and crows in a hurried manner before chirping miserably at his inability to explain himself and resolves to just continuously hitting his head onto the floor in frustration. 

You sigh and move to help him untangle himself from the mess of fabrics he’s found himself in. When you finally manage to get him out of the tangled mess, you realize how and why he’s found himself in the position he did.

Dave’s sprained leg has turned a darker shade and you can make an educated guess of what happened just based on that. You give him a healthy dose of a glare. He avoids looking at you, looking both embarrassed and ashamed at the same time.

You sigh, rubbing a hand down your face in frustration. It’s not like you can completely blame him. You're the one who chose to leave him with an untreated leg sprain just so you can prove a point when you were being a complete asshole about making fun of his name.

In retrospect, you probably look like the bigger asshole here.

“How long have you been on the floor like this?” You ask exasperatedly. He thinks about it for a moment before putting up three fingers.

“Three minutes?”

He shakes his head.

“You’ve been on the floor... For _three fucking hours?_ ” You ask again, incredulous. He nods his head.

Gogdamn it, you _definitely_ look like the biggest asshole that has ever been an asshole in history now.

You help him sit back on the bed before moving to get your medical supplies again so you can properly treat the sprain. After getting a makeshift splint you’ve prepared earlier in the day, you sit on a chair across from him once again get to work. It’s a lot quieter than your previous encounter, and you begin to feel bad for being such a gogdamn prick. The messy room doesn’t exactly help you with this feeling.

When you finish wrapping up his leg, you awkwardly glance back at him and he does the same before you both avert your eyes. You do this a few more times before you finally heave a loud sigh, purposefully catching his attention.

“Look… I’m sorry I was being a massive shit head to you and making fun of your name. I can’t even stay mad at you for this, because it’s my fault I was stupid enough to leave a total stranger in my hive, especially an injured one. So... This is on me.” You try to apologize, but can’t quite look him in the face. You were never good at apologies.

You hear him shift on the bed and when you look up at him, you see him retrieve the book you gave him so he can communicate with you in a way you can understand.

Quirking up an eyebrow, he opens the book to the same page he had been using earlier in the morning to talk and gives it to you. When you read it, you realize he’s written something new down since the last time you’ve seen it.

“What’s your name, smartass?”

You look back up at him to see him smiling smugly at you. You roll your eyes, suppressing your urge to smile. Instead, you adopt a more annoyed expression. But you offer him your hand nonetheless. “It’s Karkat. Nice to meet you, _Dave the bird._ ”

It’s his turn to roll his eyes at you, shifting awkwardly to turn his back on you again, the thing the got the two of you in this mess in the first place.

You simply shake your head at him as you stand up. You pick up the blankets and the untorn pillows off the floor before offering it to him. He looks from you to the things in your hands before deciding to gingerly take them off of you, an embarrassed expression on his face.

Then you leave the room to let him get some rest, closing the door behind you. You can do the rest of the cleaning tomorrow morning.


	2. The Bird In The Bedroom

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Karkat continues to care for the cursed human he picked up from the woods on a foraging run. Can he survive the fuckery Dave throws his way while sharing a roof with him?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ack! Late update but it's here! Sorry, I totally forgot to update yesterday, I got busy with other stuff ^^;;

┍━━━━━━━━━━━━━┑

_“Two for joy_

_On the face of a boy_

_When I tell him_

_I’m going to help him.”_

┕━━━━━━━━━━━━━┙

Another night on the floor, another crick in your back. You’re not sure how many more nights you can spend like this, but the idea of sleeping on the floor like a barkbeast for the next foreseeable future is depressing, so you stop thinking about it. Can’t make yourself miserable right off the bat. There’s plenty of daylight left for that.

Entering your bedroom to check on Dave, you find he’s still asleep. So you decide to leave him be and get a head start on your usual routine. You don’t want to disturb his sleep if you try to clean the room right then and there.

The first thing on the agenda is cutting a batch of logs into usable firewood. Living in the forest doesn’t allow you many choices in what you choose to do as a career. Since you’re always surrounded by trees, the only sensible thing you can do is become a woodcutter to earn a living.

You don’t have a specific business you supply. You just find buyers whenever you visit the village. Everyone is always in need of more firewood, especially the blacksmiths, so you have trolls willing to pay you for your services.

Just a few sweeps ago, you wouldn’t have imagined yourself doing this for a living. You weren’t exactly scrawny, but you sure as hell couldn’t swing a proper axe. You did train hard every day back then. When you still dreamed of being a Threshecutioner for the Empire and thought it was possible if you could just get good enough with your sickles. That if you just became so proficient in it, the Empire would suddenly forgive your blood colour and hire you on as one of them.

It was a stupid dream. You realized that too late. You only gave up on it when you were chased from the Capital after everyone found out what you are. You were already nine and a half sweeps by then.

Honestly, it’s a surprise you managed to survive at the heart of Empire for so long as a mutant. It’s even more surprising that you managed to make it out alive when everyone did finally find out who you were.

They burned your hive down while you were asleep. But you managed to escape thanks to an old friend.

You decided then that nothing in that small ramshackle hive that was worth bringing with you when you stole a horse and ran as far away as you can. You decided to leave everything and everyone you knew. Start anew someplace else. For your safety. For theirs.

But now you’re just a strange and mysterious troll who lives in the woods. Who also happens to be a lumberjack. What a fan-fucking-tastic life you live.

Your monotonous activity is broken when you feel something hard chucked at the side of your head, causing you to swing your axe sideways and cut the wood on the tree stump at a steep angle. You almost sever your fucking leg in the process.

“What the fuck?!” You curse loudly, turning your head at where the offending item came from only to see Dave cringing from the window of your bedroom. He threw his fucking writing book at you to catch your attention.

He caws loudly, pointing his pointer talon to his mouth. He’s hungry. You groan, running a hand down your face.

You look back at the piece of wood you cut the wrong way. That’s not going to sell. So you chuck it off to the discarded pile, the pile you take from for your fireplace. Since yours is big and doesn’t need precisely cut wood to fit in a blacksmith’s forge, you use the wood that doesn’t fit the right dimensions instead of taking from the pile that is sellable.

Then you swing your wood cutting axe into the stump to keep it in place instead of on the forest floor which can be a hazard. Afterwards, you make your way back to your hive to check in on your injured bird.

When you enter your room again, you find Dave patiently waiting on the bed. He smiles sheepishly at you as you enter.

“What the fuck were you thinking, Dave? Throwing shit at me while I’m working with an _axe_ is fucking dangerous. I thought you were capable of intelligence higher than a bird’s.” You chide, handing him back the book before deciding now is as good a time as ever to start cleaning while he writes down a reply on the book. Thank gog you keep extra ink bottles for your pen.

“That was my bad. But I literally haven’t eaten anything for the last two days and I’m really hungry.” Is his response when you glance up at his book, pausing from picking up your poor ink soiled clothes. About a quarter of them are ruined beyond saving. At least you can use them to stuff the torn pillow once you sew it up the tears.

“I guess that’s a _reasonable_ excuse. But you know my name. Did you seriously have to chuck the gogdamn book at my fucking head? While I’m swinging an axe around? You could’ve done literally anything else to get my attention.” You tell him sternly. Again, he gets that sort of embarrassed look that dusts his face a light red.

“I don’t like cawing like a feathery dumbass.” He writes. You raise a curious brow at that.

You finish cleaning up the mess by propping your dresser back up beside the bed and casually stuffing your still usable clothes back into the cabinets. You can fold them properly another time. As for the ink all over your floor… Well, there’s not much you can do to clean that away. If there’s anything harder to clean than blood, it’s black fucking ink.

You then grab your chair and sit across from him on the bed. “Try saying my name.” You order him.

He frowns at you, crossing his arms and stubbornly staying silent. “Seriously? You have nothing to be embarrassed about with your bird noises, Dave. I don’t fucking care. What I do fucking care about is losing an important limb because you were too embarrassed to get my attention by _cawing_. It’s not like there’s anybody else here to judge you either, we’re in the middle of the fucking forest, miles away from the nearest village. So stop being a stubborn piece of shit and just do it. I have better shit to be doing while the sun’s still out.”

He continues to frown before looking away and nervously biting his lip. You simply continue to watch him with a deadpan expression on your face, waiting expectantly.

Then, he throws up his hands and twitters in what you can guess from context must be, “fine!” He still refuses to look at you when he tries to say your name, twiddling with his talon fingers on his lap. “Crrrr- Craaw-cwat. Caw-Cwa-at. Kawr-Cawt.” He frowns in concentration at his hands, attempting to make the sounds he wants come out. Finally, he just decides that “Kat” is good enough. He’s going nowhere else with this even if he continues trying.

You shrug because you couldn’t care less. At least it’s a sound he can easily say without straining himself and unique enough from all his other chittering and chattering for you to identify that he’s addressing you.

“Good enough.” You tell him, standing up from your chair and helping him up from your bed so he can walk out to your dining room to eat. He takes his book and ink and pen with him to the wooden table and bench.

When you make it to your kitchen, you light up a match and start up the cooking stove to cook lunch for both of you. You toss him a piece of bread you baked up in your masonry oven outside a few days ago to tide him over while he waits for you to cook your meal.

The peaceful silence that stretches between the two of you while you busy yourself with cooking is pleasant. It’s never truly quiet in the forest, with sounds of life everywhere. The buzzing of insects, the distant calling of birds, and the rustling of leaves in the wind make for a serene melody you can’t find anywhere else. You wouldn’t normally notice these things as you’ve gotten used to everything by now, but the presence of someone else, a completely new thing for you, somehow enhances the feeling of tranquillity. Suddenly, the things you’re used to feels like they're all something new again because you’re sharing it with someone else.

It’s… Nice. Nicer than you expected.

You cook a simple stew with pieces of cooked meat. Everything you need is stored in the various cabinets around your cooking equipment, things that should be more immediately used as you haven’t processed them in a way to be preserved for later use. You’re cooking a little more than usual since it’s not meant to feed just you now, so you have to adjust your recipe a little.

But after cooking for yourself for three sweeps, you think you’ve gotten the hang of it. Enough to know what goes good with what ingredient without following a strict recipe, like the ones your friend from the village gave you.

When you finish cooking, you pour each of you a bowl of stew and present it to your bird cohabitant before sitting across from him. He’s finished his piece of bread by the time you’ve finished cooking and has been idly staring out the window on the opposite side of the room when his attention is pulled back to you and the freshly cooked meal in front of him. He breaks out in a wide smile you’ve never seen before and you’re momentarily caught off guard by it.

The two of you dig into your food before you decide to try to strike up a conversation with him. “So, why do you hate cawing like a feathery dumbass?” You ask him, smirking a little when he huffs at your use of his words against him, his plume of neck feathers puffing out a little as any bird would.

He easily writes up a reply as he eats, apparently ambidextrous. “I sound like a feathery dumbass.”

You chuckle at that. “Are you sure you didn’t before? I get the sense from the way you reply and act that you were probably still a dumbass even before you couldn’t talk without sounding like a squawkbeast.”

He crows in protest at that, closing his book and hitting you over the head with it. You flick him on the forehead in retaliation and smirk when he glares at you intently, feathers quite literally ruffled. “What are you anyway? If you can understand me and write, in proper cursive, by the way, I’m guessing you weren’t always like this. Or maybe you’re an entirely new race who’s advanced enough to have some form of an education system where they taught the major language of the region.”

His cheery mood seems to dampen at that, going back to sulking and idly twirling his stew around. You don’t push the issue when he doesn’t compose a reply, simply focusing on finishing your meal.

After a few minutes though, he pushes his book to you. “Curse,” is the only word on it.

Since he doesn’t elaborate any further on that, you decide to just leave it at that. If he doesn’t want to tell you, that’s fine. It’s not like you need to know anyway. Chances are, he’ll leave once his wounds and leg sprain is all healed up.

You don’t need to know anything else about him.

»»———— ☽ ————««

The two of you fall in a sort of routine. You knew it was going to take a while for his wounds to heal, and even longer for his leg to be usable again. So the two of you learn to sort of… Live together.

Not that that was hard to do. With Dave’s limited mobility, he doesn’t get in your way all that much. Most of the time, he sticks around in your bedroom, doing whatever he can to keep himself busy while you do your usual work outside. He’s gotten into a habit of yelling your name from the window of your bedroom though, whenever he gets hungry or needs something from you and he can’t reach it himself.

It’s just become a thing you anticipate, especially when midday comes. He’s like an alarm for you, signalling you when to take a break and eat, something you tend you miss because you’d get caught up in your work far too often. It’s… Nice.

Days pass by like this, and it’s surprising how easily he slid into your daily tasks. You thought taking care of an injured human cursed to be half-bird would be a major hassle. But Dave isn’t fussy or needs a lot of attention and care. Even when you’re redressing his bandages with a new set every week and you ask him about how he’s doing, he tends to just give you simple nod and head shake answers.

Honestly, sometimes you feel like you’re the fussy one.

The two of you spend your time like this most of the time. Doing things on your own until Dave calls for you when he needs help with something, all while learning a few new things about each other along the way too.

Like the fact that he’s funny. Even with the strange language barrier you’ve found yourselves in, whenever you talk with him during lunch or dinner, his quips to your insults and snide comments makes you smile. The companionship you’ve found with him is definitely something you didn’t expect out of everything else you didn’t expect from him.

Even after just two weeks of going like this, you’ve yourself easily getting into long-winded ramblings about your thoughts on things when he asks you questions about yourself. Like how you found yourself living in the woods, why you choose to stay if you hate it, and if you would ever go back to the life you had before if your blood didn’t make it so complicated.

You talk and talk and talk, and he listens. Sometimes, you wonder what he’s thinking about your excessive talkativeness. The most he offers is light chirring and cheeping sounds to urge you on when you feel like you’re dragging your spiels a little too long. You wonder if he minds that you talk a lot but don’t give him much space to talk himself. But his attentive expression and small witty comments to the things you say at least tell you that he at least finds your conversation entertaining. It’s not like he’s able to say much either, with just a pen and paper to communicate with. That’s the part you feel bad about.

Even when you ask more about himself, he doesn’t say a whole lot and seems to sulk a lot more when you, so you’ve just stopped asking altogether. Instead, you just build up a friendly rapport with him in your talks, full of half-hearted barbs and playful teasing.

All you’ve learned about him since you found out that he was cursed is that he’s been a half-bird, half-human for roughly three and a half perigees now. And that the day you found him bloody and weak on the forest floor was him aimlessly wandering around before he crossed paths with some nasty human hunters who thought he was some new wild bird, and that they wanted to be the first ones to mount his head on top of their fireplace.

Other than that though, he hasn’t told you anything new about himself. All you know about the bird you keep in your bedroom is that he was a human before being cursed to be a half-human half-bird hybrid, he’s as much of a smartass as you, he’s insecure about sounding like a bird, he’s not a bird brain, he’s ambidextrous, he’s stubborn, and his name is Dave.

»»———— ☽ ————««

You’ve always wondered what Dave does to keep himself entertained when he can’t move all that much on his own. When you’re not busy focusing on other tasks, you find yourself wondering about it, mostly because you can’t imagine yourself being cooped up in your hive with nothing to do that doesn’t include a lot of moving around.

So you occasionally find yourself glancing over to your bedroom window to see what he’s doing when he thinks you’re busy doing other things. He’s never made a mess like he did the second night he stayed with you, so you wonder what he could be doing that doesn’t involve futilely trying to walk on his own even when he knows she shouldn’t because he’s got a leg sprain.

To your surprise, four out of five times, you’d usually find him writing idly in his book. You’re not sure what he’s writing, you've glimpsed him drawing out musical bars with proper musical notes on them. Sometimes, you even hear him tapping out beats and making music with whatever nearby items he has at his disposal.

But sometimes, he doesn’t do anything at all. You wouldn't exactly call it... Sulking, as you feel that has more grub-like connotations. But to be fair, he does have his moments that remind you of one. Still, it doesn't quite feel like the right word for this.

More like… Brooding. He sits on the bed facing away from the door, wings slumped and staring idly at the floor, completely still, which isn’t typical of him. From what little you’ve observed of him, he tends to always be moving, physically unable to keep still. Brooding doesn’t seem like something he’d do, but what do you know about him? You guess getting turned into a bird is a major bummer, but you feel like there’s more to the story than he wants to tell.

Magic isn’t unusual to hear about, even in the most rural of villages. Actually, the amount of magic users even _you_ know makes it look like there’s an abundance of it. Which isn’t completely untrue. From what you know, everyone is capable of using magic to some extent. Some just choose to carefully cultivate it and build their lives around it. Some of them even choose to go into increasingly specific and specialized uses for their magic.

Fairytale witches, sylphs, seers, and prophets are a concept that had to have come from somewhere after all.

But only the strongest magic users can put curses, hexes, and jinxes on other things, living or inanimate. Mostly because they tend to tap into a darker sort of power that tends to be looked down upon by other magic users. But it’s not uncommon to see a stray harming spell from trolls as it’s known widely that it’s natural for trolls to be brutal, even to one another. There's a reason your race is classified as a warrior race.

It's what makes you so unnatural in the first place. On top of having unnaturally bright red blood which puts you below even the known spectrum, you’ve also got… _Tendencies_ that could be regarded as human-like. Something you’ve spent your whole life hating yourself for because you don’t fit into the standards the Empire tells all trolls should be. But you can’t do anything about who or what you are, aside from doing what the Empire wants to do to you and cull yourself.

You only reason you know so much about magic and how it’s used is because of your friend from the village. She’s not a widely known magic user as it never interested her as much as her other interests. But it’s not like she actively keeps it a secret either. More along the lines of a fact she wouldn’t openly say about herself when you first meet her unless you directly ask her.

But yeah, you don’t know what Dave did to anger a powerful enough magic-user to curse him with a full-on transmutation curse, and you’re not sure you want to know. Or if you even want to get involved.

That’s a situation that can be highly dangerous. More dangerous than anyone can ever pay you enough to get involved in. Even if they were able to.

You get a feeling that there’s more to him than just being cursed by some random powerful magic-user. And that whatever it could be is more of a burden on him than he’s willing to admit.

It’s none of your business so you stay out of it. All you can do is speculate as Dave doesn’t seem inclined to tell you anytime soon anyway.

Although every time you notice him brooding, something in you feels bad about the poor human. Too bad there’s nothing you can do about it.

»»———— ☽ ————««

When you started checking in on him from the window every now and again, you realize one day that you’ve started doing it as if it’s part of your routine. Something you do without even thinking about it.

Most of the time, it’s the same scene you’ve come to expect from him. Either writing on his book, or making a strange sort of music with his pen, talons, and the wooden surfaces of your dresser and bedpost, sometimes accompanied with some light humming of his own. Most of the time, it’s an upbeat tune. But on rare occasions, it’s a quiet one, with a melancholy melody. Days where he broods more often.

But one day, you catch him reading _your_ journals. Not that they’re actually journals where you write down events of your day to day life, because let’s be honest, nothing is exciting enough about it to justify recording every boring detail of it.

What you do write in them is, embarrassingly enough, stories you think of inside your head. They’re stupid, short things you can just imagine unfolding in front of the pages of a book. Only it’s all in your head. Sometimes, when the urge is strong enough, you write some of them down.

How he even found them is something you don’t know. You hide them inside the lowest cabinet of your dresser with a false bottom. But if all you can do is sit around waiting for time to pass, you guess it was inevitable that Dave would find it out of sheer boredom.

You don’t mind that he’s reading them, but you also do have proper books that he can read instead of the garbage swill you write about. You know they’re much better than your amateur writing.

So, just because you can, you open the window and casually lean against it before catching his attention by saying, “Hey, watcha reading there?”

This, hilariously, spooks him to the point of him letting out a startled shriek and throwing the book across the room as if that would prevent you from seeing what exactly he was reading and totally not make him look guilty. When he glances your way, you can see the red on his face, feathers all tensed up, clearly mortified at having been caught red-handed reading something he knows he probably shouldn’t have without your permission. You simply raise a questioning eyebrow at him.

Dave sighs before reaching over to his writing book and explaining himself. “Shit. I’m real sorry, man. I should’ve asked you first.”

“Gee, I wonder what gave you that impression.” You chide sarcastically.

He smiles a little sheepishly at you, giving a soft shrug of his shoulders. “So, what did you think of it?” You ask, catching him off guard once more. He gives you a quizzical look, chirring softly in confusion. “You read it, didn’t you? The least you can do is give me some constructive criticism. What did you think of it?”

He narrows his eyes at you as if weighing whether or not your question is a trick one in his head. “You’re not mad?”

It’s your turn to shrug. “It’s not like there’s anything I can do to make you _un_ read it. Aside from being completely embarrassing, it’s not like I’m worried you’ll expose it to everyone and threaten my social standing in troll society, considering I have no status worth giving a damn about in the first place. I’m not about to cull you either just because I’m embarrassed about my shitty writing and you’ve crossed a boundary I would have preferred you cross with my permission. We already went over how I apparently just don’t have the guts for shit like that, making me a defective troll.”

He’s still eyeing you cautiously before continuing to write a reply in his book. You patiently wait for him, watching him weave his hands into the paper to make great swirling cursive words. It’s a bit hypnotizing, the way he does it. When he finally finishes, he holds up the page for you to read.

“I don’t know. I’ve never been good at giving ‘constructive’ criticism, especially in writing. I don’t know jack shit about the classics, or what’s good prose and what’s shitty prose, even though I can drop a sick rhyme. I can’t tell you specifically what worked or what didn’t or how you stack up to the greats and their written works. I can deconstruct the various constitutional constructs of man or troll or whatever to high heaven, but I’ve never been too great at creating serious flowing stories with words that paint pretty imagery in your head, so I feel like I’m not fit to judge considering the gap in my knowledge. All I can tell you is whether I liked it or not.”

You raise your brow again at that, gaze moving from the page to his face. “So did you like it or not?”

He writes again, quicker this time though. “I did.”

You smile.

»»———— ☽ ————««

Days blend into weeks and weeks eventually blend into a full perigee.

It feels like it was just yesterday that you found a wounded hybrid on your usual foraging trip. But as more and more days accumulate, the better and better Dave’s injuries are healing. There are no complications, just as you expected from applying the life-saving salve you have.

The next time you undress the bandages around his torso and shoulders, you find that the arrow shots have mostly healed over under all of his shiny black feathers. When you give him this news, he seems to be delighted by this, before giving you a sort of hesitant smile that doesn’t quite reach his eyes.

He picks up his book and quickly writes something down. “Thank you.” It’s a simple two-word sentence, but somehow, you feel your chest fill with something indescribable.

You just give him a shrug, crumpling up the used bandages to throw in the trash. “It’s not a big deal. How’s your leg though? Think you can start walking properly again soon?” You ask him.

“What? Can’t get rid of me fast enough, Karkat?” He writes back playfully and you balk, at a loss for words for a moment. It’s not that you _want_ to get rid of him as fast as you can, it’s just… You want to make sure he’s completely capable on his own again before he does leave. However long that may take. “Geez, dude. I was just playing with you. I get it, you just want to make sure I’m okay. Not sure if it’s fully healed yet but it doesn’t hurt as much as it used to when I put pressure on it.” He quickly writes when you fail to give him a reply. That joke shouldn’t have flustered you as much as it did.

You force out a cough into your hand to expel the uncharacteristic awkwardness you’re feeling. “That’s good. Maybe when you feel like you can, you can try moving around again. I doubt staying in bed for this long has been good for the rest of you.”

“Yeah. Maybe.” He writes, and then an uncomfortable silence descends the two of you. Before it stretches on any longer and you feel obligated to say something stupid, you stand up from your chair.

“Alright. So uh, I guess I’ll let you get some rest for the night.” You tell him, heading for the door. He gives you a half-hearted nod but you hesitate before closing the door. “Good night.” You tell him, a tad bit too hurriedly. You only catch a glimpse of his smile before you close the door.

You try not to think too hard about everything that just happened. Or the fact that it feels weird to imagine your life without the little things you’ve incorporated into your life that involves Dave in it.

You just close your eyes and will yourself to sleep.

The next few days are much like any other. Mundanity perpetuating just the way you like it. You go through the same motions every day, but with Dave’s company, it doesn’t feel quite as monotonous. It tends to be hard to keep track of the days and weeks when you do the same shit every day, but thankfully you have a calendar to help you keep track of the season’s progression.

Until one day, Dave decides he’s well enough to try exercising his leg again. You insist on making him wear the splint at first, but when he whines to you about you being a fussy mother bird, you finally relent and let him take it off. He has been wearing the thing for a perigee and a week now.

At first, he’s a bit dubious about walking around, but it doesn’t take him long to be hopping around your hive and following you around as you do your chores. He tells you he wants to see you in action and find out what you do around this “boring-ass forest” all on your own.

This time, he does get in your way, which began to get annoying quickly. Even if he can only communicate by writing, he still manages to ask you a lot of dumb and pointless questions. Which really shouldn’t have been as distracting as they were.

You finally have enough of it when he springs into your vision hanging upside down from a tree while you’re pulling out pesky fast-growing weeds around the edges of your little clearing. Surprisingly enough he’s holding his book just the right way for you to read his latest question. “Is work seriously all you do all day?”

You huff and push his book into his face before moving to pick weeds someplace else where a tree branch isn’t conveniently hanging above your head. “Yes. It takes a lot of shit to maintain my living space and you’re seriously slowing me down right now, Dave. If you’re bored, try occupying yourself with something suitably immature and wriggler like, preferably far _far_ away from my general direction.” You snap a little too harshly and you hear him caw in exasperation at you.

You hear him jump off the tree he was hanging upside down from before everything quiets down once again. You don’t bother looking back at him to see what he’s doing, simply focusing on finishing your tasks.

And you manage to do the rest of your morning chores in record time once Dave leaves you alone. You hear and see him jumping around from branch to branch around the edge of your senses, but you don’t pay too much attention. You don’t even have to look to know he’s purposefully ignoring you too and sulking.

You finish your weeding and other clearing maintenance before moving onto cutting logs. You don’t think much of anything when you’re working, especially when you’re splitting wood. It needs just enough focus and concentration from you to keep your thoughts from straying too far away and injuring yourself because you swung the axe the wrong way.

It’s happened before, but thankfully, you only nicked your calf and the cut was only surface level. You’ve learned quite a bit since then. Your body has got the motions of it memorized by now. Placing the log onto the stump, bringing your axe up just above your shoulder with the head just past your own, and then putting in just the right amount of force when you bring it down the middle to split the wood perfectly. Then you move the split pieces into the proper woodpile and it’s onto the next log.

You do this again and again until you’re finished your designated batch and then you take a break. Dave has an uncanny habit of cawing at you from the window by this time every day, almost down to the minute. Not that you would know, but it does feel like he calls you away to have lunch at the same time every day.

It seems even your muscle memory has gotten used to this too, because you instinctively look over to the window, momentarily forgetting that Dave is pretty much as good as new and has followed you outside today. So you start to look around for him around the nearby tree branches to tell him it’s lunchtime until you spot him not far from where you are, staring.

Then when he notices that you’ve noticed him, he immediately jumps from his current branch onto the next, purposefully turning his back to you.

That was weird. How long has he been staring-?

You shake your head, sticking your axe to the stump with a little more force than you probably should have.

“Dave! It’s lunchtime! If you want to eat something, you should come in now because I legitimately refuse to cook again just for you until it’s dinner time.” You call out to him, only waiting for a beat before turning on your heel and heading inside your hive.

When he doesn’t immediately follow you inside, you simply shrug it off and start cooking, trying not to think too much. But not long after you start cooking soup with a variety of vegetables, the bird hybrid comes strolling through your front door with a strange aura to him. He avoids looking at you as he sits himself down on the bench, quietly waiting to be served lunch.

There’s a tenseness in the atmosphere you can’t quite understand. Maybe it’s because he has every right to leave your hive at this point when he’s shown you more than enough evidence that he’s capable of freely moving around again.

But yet he’s still here, having lunch with you like you have so many afternoons now.

Maybe you should feel _something_ here that you’re just… Not? He has been mooching off of _your_ resources for a while now, but it was justified by an unspoken contract between you because he was injured.

He’s not anymore. So… That contract is technically over by now, right? You don’t owe him a meal before sending him away.

But you serve him his bowl anyway.

The two of you eat your meals, far quieter than any of the other meals you've shared together. He still avoids looking at you and… You don’t know what compelled you to suddenly say the things you say next.

“Do you want to go to the village with me tomorrow?”


	3. The Quest To The Village

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rose Lalonde wakes up to an unfathomably dire predicament.
> 
> Meanwhile, Karkat and Dave continue the journey to the village, trading barbs and snarky comments along the way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A rough approximation of what the place looks like has been added to help with the visualization of the movements of each character we'll be following. I hope you enjoy the ride!

┍━━━━━━━━━━━━━┑

_“Three for a girl_

_Woken from her slumber_

_So on a quest she goes_

_This curse she must unfurl.”_

┕━━━━━━━━━━━━━┙

When you awake, it feels like it’s been centuries since the last time you have. Your body feels impossibly heavy, and your eyelids even more so. Sleep lingers in crevices of your mind, whispering comforting things if you would only go back to it. But you refuse the temptation.

The first thing your eyes focus on as the rest of your senses will away your slumber is the striking blue eyes looking down at you with concern. “-ose.” His features are a blur to you and you rapidly blink, forcing your eyes to focus on the rest of him. And when they finally do, a familiar face fills your vision, filling your chest with great relief even though you're unsure why.

Then everything else comes flooding back and you bolt upright despite the protests of the rest of your body. You put a hand to your temple, fighting vertigo that threatens to overtake you.

You survey your surroundings, only half-listening to your friend’s relieved rambling. You’re in the west tower of Derse castle, the place where you were supposed to have a _peaceful_ meeting to discuss _diplomacy_ with the Alternian Empress. But from the dreary clouds outside, the massive vines full of deadly thorns wrapping around the walls and ceiling, and the shattered purple shards from a broken stained glass window in the back of the room, it’s clear that you did not succeed.

If your memory serves you right, quite the contrary happened; your efforts backfired spectacularly.

You _told_ Dirk that setting the meeting at a _tower_ in an attempt to isolate the Empress from the rest of her accompanied convoys if things in the meeting went south was a _supremely idiotic move_. Especially when the purpose of this meeting was to avoid outright conflict between the humans and the trolls!

Speaking of- you immediately force yourself to stand up despite stumbling and almost falling back down. Your friends insist you rest but you ignore them. You’ve rested long enough. You run to the head of the long table where you come upon the most unfortunate sight.

Dirk is slumped against the wall adjacent to the broken window while Roxy is laying against her back amidst the broken glass. Both of their swords have skidded not far away from them.

You rush to your sister’s side first, dropping to her side and immediately pressing your fingers along the side of her neck in search of a pulse. Yet another wave of relief passes by you when you feel the slow beat. They’re not dead.

“They’re asleep.” The cheery voice you know so well says, a distinct lack of cheer in her voice. You turn to look at an approaching Jade and John, expressions both grim.

“Shit.” You mutter, closing your eyes and mustering whatever strength you have left not to cry. “ _Shit_.”

The next time you’re confident enough to open your eyes without shedding a tear, John has taken the spot beside you, putting a comforting hand on your shoulder. “What happened?” He asks softly. “Where’s… Where’s Dave?”

That’s all it took before it was finally too much for you to hold back a sob. You cover your eyes, feeling pathetic and weak in the situation you’ve found yourself in.

“She- Oh gods. It went so badly. I- I _told_ him being so aggressive right at the start was a bad idea but-” You can’t hold back the hiccupping sobs that escape your lips in between your words. You shake your head, roughly wiping your tears away with the back of your hand and steeling yourself. Now is not the time for crying or mourning. Nobody died. You haven’t lost yet. You _refuse_ to let this crushing defeat stop you.

It’s not like you can wholly blame Dirk either. It’s not his fault the Alternian Empress is such a bitch. You don’t blame him for wanting to willingly walk into war rather than being strong-armed into an unfavourable agreement with that witch. You knew that whatever terms she had for your negotiation were always going to end in a way where your people will be slowly drained of everything they have. You just… You had hoped that there was a peaceful way to move forward without waging outright _war_. You would never wish to subject your subjects with a fate like that.

“She… Tried to force our hand. A marriage alliance between our Kingdoms with Roxy and whoever she chooses. To seal the terms she had laid out for us. It was… An ultimatum. But when Dirk refused to agree to _any_ of the terms she put forth, she immediately went on the offensive. She… Put a sleeping curse on the whole kingdom.” You explain numbly, eyes watering again when you look back to your poor siblings. “And… And Dave- I… I don’t know what happened to him. She tried to curse Dirk with a transmutation curse for offending her with his outright refusal but… But Dave pushed him away at the last second and the last I saw of him is him going through the window from the blast of the curse and-”

You bite down hard on your lip, hugging yourself. You can’t handle the thought of your closest brother dying from a fall this high up.

Jade comes to your other side, pulling you close into her arms. “I’m so sorry, Rose. I’m… Not completely sure about this, but I- I think he might still be alive. John and I combined our magic to search the whole kingdom to find where exactly you were, but it doesn’t seem like there’s anybody here who’s not just asleep.”

You turn your head to her, afraid at the swell of hope in your chest. “Are you saying…?”

John manages to muster a smile for you. “We didn’t sense any dead bodies here, only sleeping ones. He could still be alive somewhere.”

A hysterically happy laugh bubbles up from inside you. You wipe away the rest of your tears and straighten your back as you stand up. John and Jade follow suit.

“We have to do something. John, Jade, are you with me?” You look to the two of your closest confidants. They smile back at you, despite your dreary surroundings.

“Is that even a question?” John asks, a hint of playful incredulity in his tone.

“We’re with you until the end of the road, Rose. What do you need us to do?”

You put your hands on your hips. “Jade, you’re one of the most powerful magic users that I know. Can you break the curse?”

Her and John’s hopeful expressions seem to dampen. They glance at each other before Jade speaks up. “I… I can’t. I was only able to wake you because your overexposure to and use of the Light aspect has made you less susceptible to the type of dark magic the Batter Witch uses. So when she did cast the curse, it was always going to be weakest on you and unlikely to stick as long as it does for the others. But… Curses this big and encompassing…? It’s not what I specialize in. Plus, there’s a certain magical signature that prevents me from brute-forcing my way into just outright breaking it. This kind of curse can only be willingly lifted by someone with a similar magical signature without causing harm to its victims. Another user who uses the Life aspect.”

You bring your thumb to your lips and bite on your nail. You had a sinking feeling that that was going to be the case. Things are going to be far harder than you anticipated.

After a moment of thinking, you sigh and finally make up your mind on what to do next. The two cousins look at you expectantly, awaiting orders. “Jade, can you move my siblings someplace safer? I’m going to need you to stay here and hold down the fort, make sure that nobody else comes to meddle with things in the castle. Is that alright?” With an effortless raise of Jade’s hands, your sleeping siblings start to float from the ground, wisps of bright green magic flowing around them. 

The glasses-wearing girl simply grins at you. “Done and done. I won’t let you down, Rose.” You manage to smile back at her. Then you finally turn to address the other Prospitian cousin.

“John, how do you feel about another long and arduous journey on horseback in search of my brother?”

“Anything for Dave.”

»»———— ☽ ————««

Things are far more dire than you expected.

Even if you were able to send Jade a magical distress signal before you fell to the sleeping curse, it still took them _weeks_ to get to the Derse Kingdom. And it’s not like John’s Breath aspect magic was of much use either. Only he can physically turn himself into the wind to travel as fast as it, and Jade wouldn’t want to be left behind. Jake and Jane wanted to go too, but someone had to stay behind to manage the rest of Prospit. But what’s worse is John and Jade were further inconvenienced by what they found when they did finally arrive at the Derse Capital.

The castle isn’t the only thing covered in thorny vines. As you and John stroll through the Derse Capital, everywhere you turn are houses and homes covered in and invaded by the things. But what breaks your heart the most are the sleeping figures lying in the streets. Food baskets spilled on the floor, whole livelihoods suddenly stopped as they all befell the sleeping curse at the same time as you and your siblings had. The sight of it only strengthens the feeling of sickness from the miasma of the dark magic surrounding your beloved home.

John has told you it took great effort to even clear the path you’re walking on now. Every street was overrun with the same black vines full of thorns, making it virtually impossible to pass through. They weren’t easy to cut down either, almost as hard as ironwood. Jade needed John’s help with cutting each one down just to get to the Derse castle. It took them more _days_ of non-stop work just to get to you.

So much time has passed. And you’re afraid you’re already too late.

“We’re going to find him, Rose.” John’s voice pulls your attention away from the disaster surrounding you. He smiles at you, but it doesn’t quite reach his eyes. “We’re going to find Dave, then we’re going to lift the curse and save your home. I believe in us.”

You smile back at him, not quite reaching your eyes either. You know he just wants to reassure you. But you can’t help the bit of hopelessness coming from the logical side of your mind. There’s so much to overcome.

But you have to at least try.

You look out into the distance, at the far plains and the forests beyond it, looking out farther than your physical eyes can see. _I’m coming to find you, brother. Hold on._

Then you spur your horse on into a run, holding onto the reins tightly. You have no time to lose.

»»———— ☽ ————««

What compelled you to extend your time with the bird human? You have no idea.

But here you are now walking a forest trail you’ve come to know so well, with Dave hopping from branch to branch with his talon-like hind legs above you. You only had a day of preparation after you asked him to tag along with you. It's two weeks worth of travelling on foot and you’re almost halfway done already with just a week more to go. You weren’t too worried about the things you needed to pack to warrant more preparation than a day, proved by the fact that you still have plenty to last the rest of the way. Plus, you know this forest well. You know what to look for to find edible food and where the nearest body of water is and how long it takes to get there to refill your water canteens.

Aside from the necessary items to survive the wilderness, you've also packed your usual amount of firewood on a cart you pull along, with other goods you call sell inside a satchel you carry on your back.

This much load would probably be lighter on you if you had a horse to ride on and pull the cart along like a normal human would. But you’re not a puny human. You’re a troll capable of more strength than a normal human. To add to that, you’ve gotten plenty of exercise since you started living in the forest and became a woodcutter just by proxy, so it’s not as hard on you as it used to be.

It may still be hard work, but it’s work you’re used to doing.

The sun is pleasantly balmy today, the rays of light that do manage to penetrate through the forest canopy doing little more than warm you up. It’s a lot better than the scorchingly hot day you had yesterday anyway. Even the birds seem to actually be alive this time, their faint singing a nice background noise to listen to as you continue your trek.

You glance up at your travelling companion, jumping from tree to tree with precise timing and an almost rhythmic beat to it. While Dave is perfectly capable of soaring the skies above you, he can’t exactly keep track of where you are with the towering trees obscuring his view of the forest floor. It’s not like he knows where the village is either, so following you by foot is his only option.

Still, you’d say he’s still probably got it better than you. For one, his satchel is lighter than yours. All he’s got in it are some extra food supplies, his ink and pen, and his writing book. You, on the other hand, have to carry the other half of your provisions along with pulling a heavy cart full of logs. But he did offer his help in aiding anyway he can with the travel before, you just stubbornly told him you had it handled. And you usually would. If you didn’t have a travelling companion like Dave.

You suppose what’s really bothering you is how fast and agile he is in his way of travelling, and not the load you’re carrying at all. This often manifests when you predictably fall a step behind as he hops from one branch into another ahead of you, until he has to forcibly stop just to ensure he doesn’t entirely leave you behind. Being as competitive as you are, you tried picking up your pace to keep up with him the first day this happened. But you just ended up tiring yourself far more easily than you should, something you _shouldn’t_ do because it means you need more frequent breaks, which then leads to just overall slowing down your travel progress.

So you stopped doing it after the third day. Which, in retrospect, wasn’t fucking worth anything at all because all that got you are Dave’s futile attempts at trying to keep his sniggering laughter in and half teasingly, half sincerely asking you if you needed water when you eventually can’t keep up the pace anymore. Which is actually worse than if he said it sarcastically.

And since you’ve stopped doing that, whenever you do make eye contact with him now as you catch up to him, he just gives you a playfully smug smirk. Which you hate with a burning passion. Something he does now when he chances a glance back at you just as he lands onto a low hanging branch.

You didn’t know you could hate a face as much as his, particularly when he makes _that_ expression.

You just roll your eyes and focus on the ill-defined dirt road in front of you. You’ve lost count of how many times you’ve had that same silent conversation with him.

Before Dave agreed, he was hesitant when you asked him. He questioned you on why you would invite him along on a trip to the village when it’s two weeks' worth of travel. You told him you’ve been thinking of making the journey for a while now anyway, and now that he’s able to, why the fuck not? Even though that was a complete lie and you weren’t thinking of going for at least a few more weeks. It just kinda came out of you out of nowhere, but like hell are you going to admit that. The insinuation that you’re only extending the invite out of spontaneity because you’re not ready to say goodbye to him yet is already stupid enough on its own. Its stupidity is only tripled if you said it.

Plus, you thought you might know someone in the village who can help him with his curse.

He perked up at that, expression ecstatic. You don’t think you’ve seen him that happy since you first served him a bowl of soup. It was nice to see.

Your thoughts are broken once again when Dave crows at you from a perch of a tree not too far ahead of you. He points at the sky, before fluidly and gracefully hopping down onto the ground, landing on his feet as a bird would. For someone who’s only been inhabitting a bird human hybrid body, he moves in a way that could’ve fooled you into thinking he’s been like that his whole life.

Then again, you don’t know the mechanics of a half-bird transmutation curse. Now that you think about it, you wonder if Dave can understand bird calls and songs or if they can understand him. You can’t believe you’re only questioning this now after knowing him for a full perigee.

He sits himself down on a fallen log not too far off the barely defined path you’re walking on now, talon feet curling around the round surface and hind legs folding just like a proper bird on a perch, tail feathers lightly brushing the grass under him. He takes off his satchel and starts pulling out his supply of food ration. It’s lunch and you can’t convince him otherwise until he’s eaten.

So you sigh, leaving your cart on the road by the log he’s made himself comfortable in and sit beside him. You start pulling out your meal, digging into it once you’ve gotten what you needed from your satchel. It’s mostly just stale bread and dried meat.

“Are you more comfortable sitting like that?” You ask him eventually, breaking the ambient forest sounds. Dave glances at you before shifting his position, seemingly suddenly very conscious of how very bird-like he looks like this. It’s kind of cute.

Wait-

“Yeah. Sort of? I don’t know. Being a bird is weird.” He writes, book and pen already out as if he was anticipating you’d strike up a conversation with him. Which you do tend to do whenever you have a meal together.

“What else is weird about being a bird?” You continue to ask him, biting into your bread.

He gives you a noncommittal shrug, his book leaning on one leg as he writes while his other hand holds his bread where he occasionally takes bites out of it. He’s taking the time to write a proper response, so you simply patiently wait, glancing at him from the corner of your eyes as you eat.

It’s usually you whose going on tangents, but you’ve tried asking Dave more things recently. And at that time, you’ve noticed a few things about his mannerisms. Whether you didn’t before because of his limited mobility or your obliviousness doesn’t matter. You’ve noticed now. Like how he never actually sits still for very long, always shifting slightly. From the little bobbing of his head when he’s writing as if he’s flowing with the words he’s writing, the little twitchy movements of his arms as if he needs to constantly better accommodate his flight feathers or the little swishing of his tail feathers from leaning one way onto the other. Everything about how he moves always strikes you as very bird-like, just spliced together with a little bit of human-ness that makes it a little uncanny sometimes. Like how he’s always lightly tapping his back talon hook on whatever surface he’s sitting idly on the same way someone would idly tap their fingers, or how he’d swing his legs if he’s actually sat like how a human would. Which tends to be the most unnatural looking action in his bird form. It makes you wonder what he’s like as an actual human.

But before you can imagine that, he’s already finished writing up his response to your question and hands you the book so you can read it.

“It’s weird because I don’t… Feel all that different from how I used to feel. It’s not like I needed to get used to these new limbs I suddenly have or adjust to the vastly changed aspects of myself. I just… Feel like me. Like this has always been how I’ve been my whole life. It gets even weirder when I think about how weird it is that I _wasn’t_ born like this. Like, if I’m hopping from tree to tree and I just kinda do it, right? I don’t have to think about it or focus too much on where and how I’m going to land, I just… Have a better sense of my spacial surroundings. Instinctive is the best way I can put it. Even the rest of my senses are kind of sharpened from what I can remember of my human form. My eyesight is probably the best out of the rest of my seemingly heightened senses. I can’t think of a way to properly describe it, but like, I guess the word that fits the most is everything just feels sort of… Sharper? If that makes any sense? But my point is, when I think about how I didn’t always have all these senses and instincts or whatever, I feel really weird about it. The idea of _not_ being like this feels so much more unnatural than being the way I am now and it weirds me out. It’s… It’s kind of scary actually.”

When you look up to him again, he’s shifting his legs once again, as if he can’t get comfortable the way he had before you asked the question. Now you feel bad for asking and even bringing it to his attention again.

So you just… Awkwardly hand him his book back and he takes it from you, making sure to keep his eyes on it instead of making eye contact with you.

Damn, this conversation wasn’t what you were going for when you asked him. The silence that hangs between the two of you after that is thick and uncomfortable, so you decide to break it before you finish your lunch and end things on such a shitty note.

“Can you talk to other birds?”

His head snaps to you, clearly caught off guard by that follow-up question. Then, shoulders relaxing from their tense state, he rolls his eyes at you. He coos in a way that reminds you of someone impishly saying, “ _really?_ ”

“Yes. Actually, I’ve talked to the birds in your area and they told me all about what they thought of you.” He writes, and you’re intrigued by that.

“Seriously? I wasn’t expecting you to say yes, much less actively talk to other birds.”

Dave twitters indignantly at you, black plume fluttering around him. “Excuse you. At least they’re a lot more pleasant to listen to.”

You raise a brow at him. “So you’d rather listen to brainless bird gossip than enlighten your mind with my intellectual and insightful rants about the world?”

“Do you want to know what they say about you or not?” He writes, giving you a sarcastic roll of his eyes once again, even when you see him smile for a split second before he covers it up with a deadpan expression.

You shrug. “Sure. Why the fuck not? It’s not every day I get to hear about what my avian neighbours think of me.”

He smirks at you before writing and that’s all the clue you needed to know that whatever he writes next is bullshit. “They told me they think you’re stupid and that they want you out of their neighbourhood. Maya even said that everything’s gone downhill in the forest ever since you arrived.” And you’re proven right once again.

But he still manages to crack a smile from you and you playfully punch him on the shoulder, dissolving into light laughter.

»»————- ☽ ————-««

The rest of the journey is spent the same way.

The two of you would spend every waking daylight continuously walking the same path, with only minor variations to your surroundings. Trees always surround the two of you, with a narrow, barely seen dirt path to follow. It got harder to walk through the thicker parts of the forest, full of tall grass, prickly bushes and inconvenient pebbles of all shapes and sizes that have tripped you up more times than you’re willing to admit.

Sometimes the weather is more forgiving with pleasantly cozy afternoons that coax you into falling asleep if you rest for too long. Sometimes it’s cloudy and cool, and you have to wear your cloak over top your threadbare shirt to keep warm. Sometimes it’s curse worthily hot, days where you feel like you could just drop from the heat and you crave something cold. But Dave never seems to be bothered by any of the weather you encounter throughout your two-week-long travelling. He might be slowed down by either the heat or the cool wind, but other than that, his temperature seems to be perfectly fine and well maintained. It made you wonder sometimes about what it’s like to be covered in all of those feathers.

But the nights always stay the same. The leaves are slowly taking on a more yellowish hue as you move through the forest, signalling the oncoming winter in the next few weeks. But you’re confident in your ability to make it back to your hive before the first autumn leaves fall.

Even if it may still be a long way away from the first snowflake, the night is still colder than it’s daylight counterpart. On most nights, it’s only a pleasant chill that made falling asleep faster. It wasn’t even cold enough to warrant starting a fire.

But there are nights where it gets colder than it has any business being considering how early it still is in the sweep.

On most nights, you’re fine sleeping in your blankets laid on the ground. Dave preferred to sleep on top of trees, perched comfortably on a branch. If it got cold enough, he’d usually bring his blanket up with him.

The two of you slept like that on multiple nights. Except once.

Both of you had fallen asleep earlier that night but you were surprised when you were woken up later only to stare back at big ruby eyes staring down on you. The fire you started has long burned down to mere faint embers.

He chirped and purred at you, tilting his head at an angle as if asking a question, but you were too tired to fully wake yourself up. So you simply shifted to share your blanket with him, only vaguely remembering him comfortably placing himself beside you.

By the next morning, he was already up and you were left wondering if the night before even actually happened. But the single black feather tangled up in your fur blankets was the only confirmation you needed.

»»———— ☽ ————««

The journey to the village took a little longer than it was supposed to.

But that might be entirely your fault, considering it took you three days to admit that you were never going to win the little unspoken competition between you and Dave and quit tiring yourself out. You didn’t think it slowed you down as much as it did until you reached path markers you were supposed to reach days ago. Like hitting the main road and fully emerging from the barely defined dirt path you’ve both been following.

Still, two days overdue isn’t as bad as it could’ve been.

Although, the weather is being a bitch to you when it decided that those last two days where you weren’t even partially shaded by the trees were the perfect time to be extremely hot and bothersome. Still, when you spot the village at midday when the sun is hottest, all you can say is, “ _thank fucking gog_. We’re finally fucking here.”

Dave had been following you from the trees of the forest on either side of the well-trodden dirt road. But by the time you finally see the little congregation of village huts and hives not too far in the distance, the whole forest has receded altogether to make way for rolling green plains and open skies.

Dave lands beside you, graceful as ever on his talon feet, book and ink pen in hand. “That’s it? That’s what two weeks' worth of travel is for?” Is what’s written on the page he shows you. You’re only stopped from punching him by your exhaustion.

“Yes, now could you shut the fuck up, get on the cart, and pull the blanket on top of yourself?” You order tone harsher and more clipped than usual, moving to take your satchel off your back. When you look up from digging through your things to see he’s not doing as you said, just staring at you like you’ve gone bat shit insane, you groan exaggeratedly. “What the fuck is your problem now?”

“Why the fuck would I cover myself under thick blankets inside your cart when it’s this hot today?” He writes, huffing indignantly at you. You roll your eyes.

“Dave. You’re a fucking cursed bird human hybrid. Do you really think it’s smart to walk into a troll village the way you are now? Or did the sun fry out your pan so much that you completely forgot?”

He tuts and chitters annoyedly at you before finally crawling into the little space left on your cart and pulls the blanket over top his head. You breathe a sigh of relief. But before you continue into the village proper, you find what you’re looking for inside your satchel. You uncork the vial of silvery thick liquid that shines a deep red when put against the rays of the sun.

In one smooth motion, you chug the whole liquid down, barely cringing at its metallic taste. Then, you tuck it away into your pocket before picking up the handle of your cart and continuing down the road to the village.

Your first stop is your friend’s place. You sorely need a bath and some rest before you’re able to think even about dealing with the other village folk there.


	4. The Seamstress's Secret

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Only moments after entering the village, our two travellers cross paths with trouble. Well, more like one of them directly runs after it.
> 
> Fortunately, a trusty friend is there to welcome the two into their hive and offer their services in breaking the curse. But not all is as it seems on the surface...

┍━━━━━━━━━━━━━┑

_“Four for a boy_

_With the fairest hair_

_And the reddest stare_

_In his wake is only trouble.”_

┕━━━━━━━━━━━━━┙

Sometimes, you miss it. Sometimes, you miss the brooding caverns. The grubs. The mother grub. The other jades. Sometimes, you miss it all.

But you love your life here. You’re freer here, able to do your passion without being restricted and watched like you were back in the caverns of the Capital. Still, on some days, you miss the place you grew up in. Nobody ever said you couldn’t have fond memories of a place you only realized was terrible once you grew up.

Life in the little village is simple. It’s peaceful, mundane, and unassuming. By the crack of dawn, Reyjah’s rooster will crow loudly exactly at the same time every day, signalling the awakening of other villagers. You’d wake up in your bed, open your windows, and greet the sheepherder, Aradia, as she takes the flock out to the fields to roam. Following closely behind her is her husband, Sollux, always with his abacus, who only spares you a tight nod. 

They’re an unusual couple, not many would see the use of a human tradition such as marriage in a good light, especially if both parties are trolls. Many have seen it as too limiting, to commit to a single troll in every quadrant. Multiple marriages, particularly to their concupiscent partners, are more favourable, although highbloods will still look down upon it with disdain. Royalty is the only exception, as marriage alliances have been used before to forge political bonds with the Human Kingdoms and ensure that the peace between the two factions continues. The last time a traveller from the Capital strolled through, they brought news of a marriage alliance between the Maid of Prospit and The Grand Highblood’s heir.

An hour after Aradia strolls by, you’d hear the many morning greetings exchanged by the villagers as they walk the streets, getting their businesses opened and set up. An animated scene you’d watch from your window, watching everyone go about their daily lives, lively chatter filling the space. Even if you’ve seen this scene play out again and again ever since you moved in as this village’s trusty seamstress four sweeps ago, you never get tired of seeing the normal lives of normal trolls in a practically unknown village near the outskirts of the Empire. Something about the simplicity of it all is just so attractive and entertaining to you.

At the height of it all, Geddon the baker would offer you a piece of freshly baked bread as he wheels his goods to the heart of the village, where others will set up their wares for others to peruse through. It’s easier to have all the shops in one place instead of flitting about back and forth as villagers fulfill their tasks and errands. Then the village gossip, Vilana, would pop into your window to ask you if you wanted to know a new piece of gossip she heard from the cobbler, Osoryn, who heard it from Roxiel's moirail, Lionel, who heard it from the village prankster, Stelio, who-

Juicy gossip spreads fast in a village as small as this one. Especially when almost nothing exciting ever happens here.

Once the streets are clear and most of the trolls would have migrated to where it’s busiest, you’d begin your work as a seamstress. Most of which consist of sewing up the torn clothes of various villagers. Some are small holes here and there, while some are comically big, and it makes you wonder about the private lives of your clients. Although, it’s not that much of a secret, not when Vilana likes to air out everyone’s secrets.

But you’ve kept yours close to your chest. You have a reputation to uphold, and it’s not hard for small panned villagers to turn on someone if they perceived them as a threat to their way of life.

Not that you’re afraid of them finding out. You may be wanted for deserting your position as a jade in the caverns, but you doubt the Empire remembers your crimes. Nor are they using all of their resources looking for a single jade traitor. They’ve got a long list of enemies that are more of a threat than you.

Besides, you’ve taken every precaution to keep your identity a secret. As far as anyone knows in this lowblood community, you’re a simple olive seamstress that left the Alternian Capital in search of a quiet life away from the nobility. They’re not suspicious nor do they blame you for wanting to leave. Most of the inhabitants of this little village have come from all sorts of places under the Empire’s control and only to decide to stay after being charmed by the simplicity of life far away from nobility. Unlike most townships with minor lords and ladies controlling the land, this community is made up completely of lowbloods making a livelihood for themselves.

Here, nobody needs to have ties to their ancestors. Here, trolls are free to simply go by their first names with no need to give out their surnames. Here, all you’re known as is Kanaya.

Life in the village is peaceful, mundane, and unassuming. Most of the time, anyway.

»»———— ☽ ————««

The knock on your door is a bit unexpected. You are just finishing up your lunch after doing work all morning. You planned on moving onto your current passion project, but you suppose all of that will have to wait now.

When you move to open your door, you’re surprised at who you find behind it. The mutant woodcutter who lives alone in the woods. A close friend of yours, the only one to know your secret and who you really are. Mostly because he’s seen your wanted poster in the Capital before and recognized you when he first visited the village three sweeps ago.

He approached your door, looking for a temporary refuge after travelling perigees across the land, running away from the same thing you ran away from. You had invited him in and he revealed the fact that he was a mutant to you.

Ever since then, the two of you shared a kinship no one else would truly understand. You’ve never been one to discriminate against blood, and you found the prosecution of his barbaric from the start. But it’s not like you could stand up against the entirety of the Alternian Empire, not when you’re in a similar position as him. Faces on a wanted poster for being traitors to the illustrious Empire.

Both of you are outcasts, him more so than you. But both of you have an understanding of each other’s situations, and his company has always been a comforting one to you. You considered asking him for his moirallegiance, but he’s made it clear before that he wants to stay untethered as much as possible. In case he needed to run again.

Still, he’s your friend. Perhaps one of your truest friends here, so you let him in without much of a thought.

He immediately crashes into one of your leather seats, a rarity to have considering your disguised station. It was a gift from the entire village, on your tenth sweep birthday. You’ve earned quite a bit of goodwill with the other villagers after working as their only seamstress when the other passed away just two sweeps ago. Bless Courta Lilium's soul.

You sit on the seat opposite of him, furrowing your brow. “Are you alright, Karkat?” You inquire, motherly instincts turning on. He sighs loudly, sinking further into your couch, eyes shut. He looks like he’s about to fall asleep. Then again, he has mentioned in his previous visits to you that the travel from his hive to the village is two weeks long, and it’s not the first time he’s arrived in your hive exhausted. “Would you like a glass of water?” You offer instead.

Finally, he cracks an eye open, bright red eyes dulled to look more burgundy. Since both of you are grown up, the colours in your eyes have filled in completely. You’ve created a magical concoction precisely to hide your eye colour, although it doesn’t change the colour of your blood when you bleed. The effects can last up to three to four days and you’d need to drink the liquid again afterwards to maintain the illusion.

It’s how you’ve stayed undercover this whole time. It’s a Space aspect magical signature, something you learned a little of before you fled your cavern home.

Karkat simply gives you a nod and you stand up to grab him a glass from your water basin in the kitchen. When you come back, he’s repositioned himself to sit more properly. He mutters a, “thank you,” to you before drinking the whole thing, not leaving a single drop behind.

You seat yourself back in the same place as before, folding your hands on your lap. “How was the journey here? You seem more tired than usual.”

He simply grimaces at you, leaning back into the soft leather. “The last two days of travel were so fucking hot. As troublesome as winter is, I prefer the cold chill to the soul-sucking heat of the summer.”

You smile a little at that. “I was wondering when you’d return since I know you hate travelling during the summer. But it still is a bit early in the season to make your usual trip here, isn’t it? I’d usually see you back in the village when the trees have at least turned the shade of lime yellow. What brings you here this week?”

He frowns at that before a loud commotion catches your attention outside. “SHIT!” He exclaims and he’s out the door before you can even question him, forcing you to follow after him.

What you see outside perplexes you, with Karkat’s cart being toppled over and a flash of something black disappearing around the corner. “Are you seriously fucking shitting me right now?!” He cusses before breaking out into a run after the figures, and you sigh exasperatedly. You look around bewildered for a moment before pulling your skirt up and following after your friend.

“Karkat! Karkat, wait up! What are we chasing and why ever for??” You call out and he glances back at you before slowing down just enough for you to catch up. 

The two of you weave through the village streets, following two figures far ahead. One of them, a shorter figure who you recognize as tiny Timity, a local page that recently moved in with his lowblood parents. He turns a sharp corner, and to your surprise, the black figure uses its momentum to jump onto a street sign and launch itself from it to round the sharp corner without losing ground.

You call it an 'it' because you’re not sure _what_ it is. It looks nothing like anything you’ve seen before and judging by the colourful array of cursing Karkat lets out, it’s imperative that you catch them.

The two of you run through several streets, weaving around startled villagers milling about and various carts and crates in your way, with you leaving an array of apologies while Karkat cusses out everything that stands in his way.

Eventually, you turn into a sharp alleyway you recognize and you call out to Karkat who’s running just ahead of you. “Karkat! This leads right out to the market we have-”

But before you can even finish your sentence, you hear the very loud crash just ahead of you, indicating that you’re already too late.

When you emerge out of the alley panting and trying to catch your breath, you find Karkat staring in dismay at the catastrophe that’s befallen the local village market. One of the stalls has collapsed in on itself, with broken crates, splintered wood, and crushed fruits and vegetables littering the floor. On top of it is an… avian-like creature, who’s half-bird and half-human, with black feathers and fair hair.

Just ahead of the disaster is Timity, who seems to have dropped what he was being chased for. A book and some ink and pen.

A crowd of onlookers has formed around the mishap, most either looking on in trepidation or in wonder. A tense silence hangs in the air as the bird creature looks from Karkat and to the items on the floor that he’s been chasing after.

It’s broken by the sound of your friend’s hands meeting his face in a rare double facepalm 2x combo.

»»———— ☽ ————««

“-thinking, you massive ignoramus pan pruned dunce of a bird?! I can’t fucking believe you-”

You try not to eavesdrop on their private conversation from the alleyway you emerged from just minutes earlier. The market has surprisingly decided to simply resume the rest of their daily activities without much of a fuss. Although farmer Correy, whose stall got demolished, isn't too happy with what just happened. You half expected a lynching to happen by now after what you just discovered alongside everyone else. The whispers and what you observe to be the start of yet another rumour mill is a very mild reaction compared to what you were expecting.

The village shepherd, Aradia, sidles up beside you. “Kanaya.” She greets with an enthusiastic nod of her head.

“Aradia.” You mimic the greeting. The sheepherder has been your long time neighbour, as you do live in the outer parts of the village. The oldest residents live nearer the center, but although Aradia has lived here all her life, she simply decided to move to a hive near the outskirts out of convenience. It’s easier to move the sheep out of their corrals attached to her hive and out to the fields beyond the village.

You consider her one of the few friends you do have in the village. While you mostly get along with a lot of the folks here, there’s not many you can confidently say you’d go to in a crisis.

"So, any chance I can get the lowdown on what really happened just a few moments ago before anyone else?" She inquires inquisitively, leaning back and forth on the soles of her feet. 

"I'm afraid I'm as much in the dark as you on this one." You answer with a little shake of your head and a glance back at the two. They seem to be in a heated discussion, and by they, you mean mostly Karkat.

"Any chance I'll be the first one to know after you find out yourself?" She continues to inquire, bringing your attention back to her.

"Why would you like to know?" You shoot back a question of your own, raising a brow.

The curly maned woman simply beams a cheerful smile at you. "This is the first real exciting thing to ever happen to this village. It's hard not to be at least a little bit curious."

You look out over the crowd of village folk weaving around one another and looking through various sellers' wares, all busy haggling each other and going about their normal lives like always. Maybe the answer to them not caring so much is as obvious and simple as that; curiosity. Nothing special at all.

"I'll be sure to tell you all about it after Karkat regales his story to me." You tell after a moment, giving the sheepherder a polite smile.

Aradia gives you another nod, before her gaze moves to the alleyway. "I don't think either of us will have to wait very long though." She comments as the two seem to have finally come to some form of understanding. Karkat looks less agitated anyway. "I'll see you around then, Kanaya!" She says in parting just as the two men come back from their private talk.

You nod to the two of them in greeting, although you eye the avian creature with mild interest. "Can we move back to your hive before the trolls here start harassing us about what just happened?" Karkat asks, sounding wearier from the day's events. From the sound of what he told you earlier, this wasn't exactly the best thing to ever follow up a tiring two-week-long trek under a swelteringly hot sun.

"Of course. Follow me." You tell them before leading the way back the way you came, glancing back once to make sure no one from the market place decided it was a good idea to follow you home.

Once you make it back to your humble abode, you make sure to lock your door and close your windows to ensure all of you are away from prying eyes before you start the inevitable conversation about what just happened. You know from experience just how nosy some of the village folks can be.

After making sure every opening is closed shut, you light the various candles in your living space to lighten the place up. Then, you finally turn to your two guests who seem to have already made themselves comfortable on your leather chairs.

Karkat avoids your stern gaze and awkwardly shifts on his seat. Meanwhile, the avian creature is determined to keep his eyes on your floorboards. When neither are immediately jumping out of their seats to give you an explanation, you simply sigh in exasperation to break the tense silence in the air.

“Would either of you be willing to explain to me what just happened and how?” You start, motherly disapproval clear in your tone. Both of their eyes flit to each other for a moment, before Karkat rolls his eyes and the avian creature crosses his arms stubbornly.

“Alright, before we get into the shit I find myself deeply entrenched in once again, all of which is by my own volition in my surprisingly frequent lapse in judgement, I should introduce the two of you first,” Karkat exclaims, lazily gesturing to the bird person sitting across from him. “Kanaya, this is Dave. Dave, this is Kanaya. There, now you two know each other.”

The bird- Dave, waves and coos at you in greeting before clamping a hand over his mouth, as if he didn’t mean to make that sound. Then, he retreats further into the cushions of your seat, seeming to curl in on himself. Karkat rolls his eyes again.

“Alright then…” You say, a bit apprehensive at the situation you’ve found yourself in the middle of. You pull a chair from your dining room to sit closer to the two of them. Then you bring your attention back to your friend. “How- forgive me if this seems rude, but- how exactly did… This,-" You inquire, gesturing to Dave who seems intent on staring holes into your floorboards once more, "happen?”

Karkat simply shrugs, frowning. “Fuck if I know. All he’s told me is that he’s cursed.” Dave squawks in protest at this, narrowing his eyes at the other. Karkat completely ignores him. “Actually, that’s kind of why I brought him along.”

Now that surprises you. “Really? What for?”

He shifts again in his seat, looking uncomfortable in what he’s about to say, even though you already have an inkling as to what it is he wants from you. “You can do stuff with magic, yeah?”

You can’t help but glance over at the cursed human, feeling a prickling of pity at the form he’s in. “You want me to try reversing the spell and bring him back to his original form?” You reply, cutting straight to the chase when you look back at Karkat.

He averts his eyes again, an embarrassed expression on his face. You bite your lip, thinking long and hard about it for a moment. Then you address the person in question directly. “Dave, do you remember the specific words used to cast the spell on you?”

Your question seems to startle him as if he didn’t expect to be addressed at all during this whole conversation. He chitters, frowning and thinking about it before producing a book and pen from his recovered satchel.

You glance over at Karkat, and he just shrugs again. “He can’t talk.” Is all the explanation he gives you.

When he finishes, he gives you the book with a page open to where he wrote his answer on. “I didn't completely memorize it, but it stuck out in my mind anyway because of how shit the rhyme scheme was. So it might not be the exact wording but it was something like-

_Of thorns and roses_

_I call thee to repossess_

_Of feathers and crows_

_I call thee to bring woe_

_To the one who thinks himself above my request_

_I call thee to take that of which he holds dear_

_A form to jail, a form of jesters and jeer_

_A form to mock, a form of black and fear_

_I call thee to take the form of ravens and jackdaws forevermore!_ ”

Your stomach drops as soon as you finish reading the writing. Both of them are looking at you with curiosity in their eyes, but all you do is look at the cursed human with a grave expression. “Dave..." You start, leaning close and lowering your voice. "Who exactly are you?”

His brows crease together as he stares at you before taking his book back and writing. “I’m just Dave,” is what he tells you, but the way he’s looking at you apprehensively tells you everything you need to know. Karkat stares at both of you with a frown of his own, although he seems more annoyed at being left out of whatever silent conversation the two of you are having.

You look back at the avian, trying to gauge how you should approach this. Or whether you should at all. Finally, you glance over at Karkat, putting on a tight smile. “Can you give us a moment to chat, Karkat?” You inquire sweetly enough.

“Wait, what?” He exclaims almost indignantly, eyes flitting from you to the companion bird he came here with. Dave keeps his attention on you, eyes dilated just a slight bit, clearly alarmed. But he keeps his face turned in a way where Karkat can’t see it.

“I just need to ask Dave a few personal questions pertinent to this curse on him.” You answer, which is technically the truth. “I need to know exactly what it is I will be dealing with.”

He narrows his eyes at both of you. “And why can’t I be here for that?”

A beat of silence skips before Dave forcefully flashes his pupils to the same size they were and faces Karkat with a deadpan expression. “Because I doubt any of your input would actually help in undoing the curse, nubs. Besides, your interjections are very distracting and will only derail the topic at hand.” He writes.

You can see Karkat seething in his seat as he glares at Dave, who smiles the faintest bit at being able to rile him up. Looking from one to the other, you can’t help but feel like…

“Fine! Fine. Just fucking fine. The quicker this is over, the sooner I can go back to my normal, solitary life in the forest that I very much fucking miss. I have better shit to be doing while I’m in the neighbourhood anyway. You two have fun talking about curses or whatever.” He says with a throw of his hands before standing up from his seat and leaving through your front door.

Once you’re sure it’s just the two of you alone, you turn to Dave. He’s fidgeting nervously with his ink and pen, avoiding making eye contact with you. “So… Who exactly are you, Dave? This- this spell isn’t just any normal transmutation curse. This _horrorterror magic_. Who did you cross to have earned the ire of such an enemy?”

His eyes flit up towards you for a moment before focusing on his writing book. “Will you tell Karkat?” Is the question he asks.

You furrow your brows in concern. “Why wouldn’t I? This could be dangerous and he has to know what he’s getting himself involved in. What he’s _gotten_ himself involved in. Why wouldn’t you want me to tell him?”

Dave seems to shrink in on himself once again, crossing his arms in a way that makes it look more like he’s hugging himself. He bites his lip, looking guilty and almost… Remorseful. “I… It’s nothing. Never mind. I shouldn’t have stayed. It was a long shot that you could help me anyway and I don’t want to needlessly endanger anyone else.”

“I never said I couldn’t help.” You say cautiously. His head snaps up to look at you, which is a bit startling. “Look, I'm fairly certain I can't completely undo this type of curse. I’m not exactly the most skilled magic user, I simply dabble on the side. But I believe… I can at least do something to undo part of it and allow you to speak normally again. It might be tricky and it might take a few days… But I think I can do it.”

The hope that blooms on his face makes you feel warm in your chest. Then, he seems to pull back his emotions a bit, writing up a reply. “Really? Do you take some kind of payment or something? I don’t think I can offer much, but I’ll do whatever I can to repay you. Just say the word. I’ll forever be in your debt, metaphorically and literally.”

You think about it for a moment, feeling a hint of a smile creeping up onto your expression. “Can you answer a question truthfully for me? That’s all I ask in return.”

Dave narrows his eyes at you, eyes flashing again, looking at you with suspicion. Then, you see him seem to weigh his options in his head as he looks down at the page of his writing book. Until finally, he chirps reluctantly and simply gives you a short nod of his head.

You smirk, folding your hands on your lap. “What do you think of Karkat?”

»»———— ☽ ————««

By the time you get back to Kanaya’s hive, the sun is already setting on the horizon. You managed to sell your rare herbs and plants from the forest without getting scammed by Correy. Although you did give him a stack of firewood to say sorry for Dave falling face first into his stall and absolutely wrecking the rest of his day at the market. 

To your surprise, the villagers weren’t as shocked or outraged at what happened. You don’t know if it’s better or worse than their nosiness and curiosity though.

You just hope that you won’t have to stay here for long and that whatever Dave and Kanaya talked about can be solved before the end of the week.

But things look pretty grim on that end from what Dave has told you about what they talked during the entire afternoon you left them alone for. Kanaya went out just a few minutes before you came back to deliver her work to her clients while Dave entertained himself with whatever is at his disposal the way he usually does.

“So, you’re saying trying to break part of the curse could take a week or more of work on Kanaya’s end?” You summarize, raising a brow from your seat on the leather chair across from Dave. He shrugs in response.

You try not to groan, just roughly run your hand through your already messy hair. Kanaya doesn’t have to help you, but she’s doing it anyway because you’re her friend. Still, the idea of having to spend more time than you’re used to with small village folks like the trolls here is already fraying the edges of your nerves. Especially when they seem intent on being extra annoying with their invasive questions.

“Fuck. Alright, fine. It could be worse. Did she ask you at all for a form of payment or something?” You know Kanaya isn’t the type to ask for a price if she’s offering her help willingly. But sometimes you wish she did because you feel like you’re somehow taking advantage of her kindness and friendship.

He stares at you for a long moment, feathers tensing up and pupils flashing for a moment before he ducks his head and shakes it. You keep your raised eyebrow as you stare at him skeptically, but he stubbornly refuses to meet your gaze.

After another beat of the strangely tense silence that surrounds the two of you, you break it with a yawn. “Alright, if you don’t have anything else important to tell me, I think I’m gonna go to sleep. Kanaya has a guest bedroom upstairs, right beside hers. I would usually use it, but you can take it. I’ll just sleep down here with the blankets I used from the journey.” You tell him, standing up from your seat and making a beeline for the door to gather your sleeping things from the cart outside.

But before you even make it to the door, Dave crows to catch your attention. “I don’t need a bed. I’m more comfortable falling asleep on a perch.”

“You sure? I don’t mind, I’ve been sleeping on the floor for almost two gogdamn perigees now, it doesn’t matter to me anymore where I sleep.” You do care, sleeping on the floor fucking sucks and your back hates you for it. But somehow, you feel like an ass if you don’t _at least_ offer it.

He simply shakes his head. “Really. You can use it, the only reason I couldn’t sleep on a perch before is because of my sprain, but now that I’m all better, I’m more comfortable sleeping like an actual bird. And I- uh- feel sorta bad about kicking you out of your own bed for so long.”

You shrug, changing your direction to head upstairs. But you pause for a moment halfway up, looking back at Dave who seems to be looking at you expectantly. After another awkward beat, you cough out a “good night,” before quickly disappearing upstairs to the room just across Kanaya’s.

What the hell was that about? That whole interaction just somehow felt weird and… Off.

You decide to put it out of your mind, which wasn’t hard because you pretty much blacked out as soon as your head hits the pillows.


	5. The Lioness's Daughter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rose and John continue on their search for the lost prince of Derse.
> 
> Meanwhile, Karkat runs into the village's local huntress and friend. This forces Dave to face internal conflicts he's been avoiding ever since meeting the mutant.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahhhhh update is here uwu How are y'all holding up? It's looking more and more like this summer is going to be an introvert simulator for everyone :')

┍━━━━━━━━━━━━━┑

_“Five for silver_

_Six for gold_

_The hunter and her quiver_

_Leaves my hand cold.”_

┕━━━━━━━━━━━━━┙

You and your companion have been travelling for two weeks westwards. The wind nymphs John called upon gave you a lead on the whereabouts of your brother, and although you still have a large amount of ground to cover in your search, at least you have a direction.

They told you they witnessed a great black bird clumsily make his way above the forest trees from the direction of your castle, so you followed the way they pointed to. It’s not that much of a surprise that Dave would try to make his way westward, towards the general direction of where the Prospit Kingdom is.

But after a week of following John’s lead using his windy magic, you lose track of your lead in the forest for whatever reason. Like a scent getting fuzzy for a dog. Now, the two of you have been aimlessly wandering for two whole days on foot, leading your horses by their reins. Scratch that, the sun is bound to set in a few hours and the two of you will have to make camp in the forest once more.

With a sigh, you tear your gaze away from the rosy skies and carefully pluck another apple from the tree. A quick count of the things in your satchel tells you that you have just enough to make a decent meal out of cooked fruit for the night. Your trusty stallion neighs rather loudly, her beady eyes eyeing your collected loot enviously.

You pat her nose affectionately and move to pick an apple out to feed her with. You manage a rare laugh when she eagerly gobbles up the fruit and proceeds to lick your face to her gratitude. “Alright, Prince. Time to go back to John and see if he’s made any progress.”

You take his reins and start leading him through the thick bushes and strange fungi with great care. When you make it back to the little clearing you and your companion stopped at for a quick break, you find John still levitating in the air, legs crossed and eyes closed in meditation.

When your presence is made known with Prince’s loud hoof-falls, John casually turns around as he comes out of whatever magic casting concentration he was on, feet touching back on the ground soundlessly. He looks tired, with darkening circles around his eyes from your none stop travelling. And yet, he still manages to give you a genuine smile.

“Any luck?” You ask him, returning the gesture as you tie Prince’s reins on a nearby low hanging branch. John audibly sighs, something he seldom does for effect. He's genuinely tired.

You feel terrible because, on some level, you’re the one pushing him even if he does everything you ask willingly. You know just how energy-consuming huge exhaustive magical spells can be. Especially one like a location spell spanning a wide margin of land.

Your expertise in Light aspect magic doesn’t help much either. While Light heavily deals in knowledge, it’s knowledge limited to yourself. Any knowledge that you don’t already know is to be sought by conventional methods, perhaps with the aid of Light magic. But you still have to seek it. There isn’t a spell that just gives you a very specific perfect omniscience about a certain topic you wish to know.

Space, Breath, and Blood aspect magic are more efficient for getting highly accurate results when searching for something. Or some _one_.

With a tired shake of John’s head, you feel a little bit of your hope die inside you once again. It looks like you’ll be making camp for the night once again. No use continuing to wander around without a direction.

After a bit of effort on both of your parts, you manage to start up a nice bonfire to cook your foraged food items with. The two of you talk and catch up, even if the conversation is quite dull and lacking in enthusiasm on both ends. Still, the silence of your continued failure feels far too heavy to bear. So you and John fill the silent space with idle chatter.

After the two of you have your dinner for the night and feed your steadfast steeds their share of the meal, the two of you start cleaning up a bit around your camp. The night quickly fell upon the two of you, but just before John was about to summon a wind to snuff out the rest of the flames of your campfire, you stop him with a raise of your hand.

Your pulse elevates and you feel a familiar prickling sensation in the back of your neck. With the use of Light aspect, magic comes a great awareness of your surroundings, immediate or otherwise. It also comes with greater intuition and a gut feeling that tends to be right far more often than that of a normal, none Light aspect user. You’ve learned to trust that tingling sensation in the back of your head.

John watches you puzzled eyes, hands previously up and ready to summon his windy thing, slowly lowering. You pay his look of confusion no mind, too focused on your surroundings and looking with your senses for whatever your intuition is telling you to look for.

And then- “John! There! Can you see that? At the top of the trees?” You shout suddenly, practically tripping over yourself to follow the black feather blowing in the wind. Thank the gods your Kingdom is sensible enough not to employ attire limiting your movements. 

John frantically follows after you, head darting all-around at the skies just above the treetops. “Rose! What?! Where?!!!”

“There! Hurry, John! We can’t lose it!” You say, pointing whilst running through the underbrush, too afraid to take your eyes off the feather making loop-to-loops in the wind.

Finally, John seems to spot it and he launches himself off the ground to quickly grab the thing. Only then do you stop, doubling over and panting. Your brothers were right, you seriously need to get out of the royal archives more and exercise. Who knows when an epic adventure will need you to exert your physical limits?

John carefully floats back down beside you, a triumphant expression on his face as he holds the piece of black feather in the air like it was some trophy worthy of recognition. You grin excitedly at him.

“M’lady. I believe this is yours.” He says, bowing courteously as he hands you the sizable black feather. You take it from him gingerly, heart pounding in your chest. After a moment of examination, you look back at John.

He looks just as elated as you.

You’re one more step closer to finding your brother.

»»———— ☽ ————««

The next day, you’re the last one to wake up. When you come downstairs, you find a warm meal already waiting for you, with Dave sitting at the table, doing whatever it is he does in his writing book. He only looks up at you when you take a seat on a chair opposite him.

“Where’s Kanaya?” You decide to ask as you begin to dig into the bowl of vegetable mush and rice oats. He rolls his eyes at you as he writes.

“Good morning to you too, nubs. She’s upstairs in her room, doing some work. Said she wanted to get an early start on breaking the curse.”

It’s your turn to roll your eyes at the sarcastic greeting and the shit nickname he’s gotten into the habit of calling you. From your reaction yesterday, you hate yourself for being so easy to read and letting him know just how much the taunt on your short horns gets under your skin.

“Whatever. It’s not like you cared about whether I said good morning to you before, so why does it matter now?” You say just as sarcastically with your own eyeroll. “Did she tell you how breaking part of the curse is supposed to work?”

He seems to eye you weirdly for a moment before writing his reply. “Not really. She briefly explained the mechanics of it over breakfast with me, but I don’t think I completely get it. Something about magical signatures and metaphorical magical barriers or something. It sounded like magical gibberish to me. But she did say the antidote will most likely come in a drinkable potion to quote-unquote ‘take down the magical barrier translating my words into bird speech.’ If you want to know more, you’re gonna have to ask her yourself.”

“Huh. How long exactly does she estimate before she makes a successful one?” You ask next.

He shrugs his shoulders. “She said it could take anywhere between four days to two weeks.”

You sigh. You’re grateful she’s helping you out to this extent, even housing you in her hive without expecting anything from you. Still, you do not look forward to living in the village for that long. 

So you simply nod your head in acknowledgement and the two of you lapse into a semi-awkward silence. You focus on finishing your meal, but Dave keeps fidgeting with his pen and glancing at you weirdly now and again. When you’re finished you sigh and address him again.

“What? Do you have something you want to say, Dave?”

Somehow, he seems to be caught off guard by your question. He chirps in embarrassment for a moment before writing. “What do you plan on doing today?”

You raise a curious brow at his question. “Just heading out to the market to buy some supplies and then making a delivery to the local blacksmith. Why?”

Dave stares at you for a moment before hesitantly writing out a reply. He takes more time than it probably should’ve to write, “can I come with you?”

You shrug. “Sure. I don’t give a shit, just try not to cause another commotion.”

He smiles brightly for a moment before seemingly trying to hide it with a strange squawking sound while covering his mouth with a hand. You surmise it’s the bird version of a cough.

So you get ready to go out to the market. After eating, you take a much-needed bath before changing into your usual comfortable threadbare linen shirts and pants with sturdy boots. You bring with you your satchel with your pouch of coins inside and hook on your cloak. Before you leave the hive though, you make sure your eye colour is still rust red in the mirror. You’ll have to remember to ask Kanaya for another eye colour changing potion to keep your true blood colour hidden from everyone else.

Yet another inconvenience of having to stay in the village. It’s so easy to forget that your blood colour is blasphemous when you haven’t lived in constant fear of others finding out in so long.

Only then do you head out into the marketplace with your bird companion. You pull your hood up over your head as you pass by the busy village folk who cheerfully greet you on the streets. You have no idea how some of them can be so exuberant in their daily lives.

Thankfully though, all you get is stares from others as you make your way to your destination. A stark difference from the bolder ones yesterday who constantly stopped you and asked about the new companion you brought along to the village. Now that he’s walking beside you, you guess they have the common sense not to be so curious when the person they’re spinning rumours about is actually in their vicinity.

It seems Dave doesn’t pay them much mind either, too occupied with looking at everything there is to see in the village now that he isn’t running through it and chasing a pickpocketer. Not that there’s much to see in this shanty village.

Halfway to the market, Dave taps you on the shoulder for a question written in his book. “Do you know everyone who lives here?”

“Unfortunately.” You reply with a scowl as your eyes briefly glare at another villager who joyfully shouts a greeting to you. “Most of the trolls who live in a small village like this don't tend to get a lot of newcomers. You’re bound to know everyone’s name within a half a sweep even if you don’t live in the village itself.”

“Do you hate it here?” He asks you next, and you snort.

“Excellent observational skills, captain obvious. Anything else you’ve noticed using your two superior look stubs?” You say sarcastically. “I don’t like it anywhere. But it’s not like I have a choice anyway, so why does it matter?”

He twitters ambiently, shrugging his shoulders. “Dunno. You’ve never considered settling in with the humans?”

You turn to him with an incredulous look. “And what makes you think that humans would be any more accepting than trolls? I’m better off alone anyway. Less complicated that way.”

“Don’t you get, I don’t know, lonely?” Is his next question.

You sigh, running a hand down your face. “You’re providing me with plenty of company to last me the rest of my lifetime, Dave. No, I don’t get ‘lonely’. Why do you think I live in the woods?”

He shrugs his shoulders again. “Well, there’s the obvious reason. But if you didn’t have to?”

“Well, it is what it is and it isn’t going to change, so it doesn’t fucking matter.” Is your clipped answer. Sensing your disinterest in this branch of conversation, he doesn't ask you another question. 

Somehow, you feel guilty for the way you answered, but you don’t understand _why_. You’ve thought about all the ways your life could be better, but it’s not like any of them could actually happen, so why does it fucking matter what your answer is?

Eventually, you make it to the market and it’s just as crowded, loud, and hot as before.

Colourful stalls full of a variety of wares are set up by village vendors, and the local population mill about in clusters, moving from stall to stall, shopping for whatever they need. Left and right are full of lively chatter, from vendors shouting around trying to attract buyers and village folk trying to haggle for the prices.

A bit surprising, but barely even reacts to your arrival, treating seeing a bird human hybrid as if it was old news by now. Or maybe it’s just because they have better shit to be paying attention to than the arrival of two strangers. You don’t care either way, the less you get hassled, the faster you can get through the day.

A glance to the side tells you that Dave is pretty captivated by his surroundings. He’s looking around like he’s trying to take it all in so he can keep a clear keepsake image of it in his head. “Are you seriously entranced by some small village’s marketplace?” You inquire loudly to be heard over the noises of the crowd.

Dave’s head snaps to you, eyes flashing as he tries to properly focus his attention on you and not on the million things happening all around you. Then, his face takes on a light dusting of red, embarrassed. He chitters, before remembering he still can’t talk and annoyedly takes the time to pull up his book and pen from satchel to talk.

You don’t mind waiting, you have no idea how much it must fucking suck being unable to communicate efficiently. “I’ve just never been surrounded by so many trolls before.” Is his reply.

You chuckle at that. Your race has never got along very great with humans, and it’s very rare to see either one in the other’s territory. While interracial couplings do happen, it’s very rare for it to happen in the common populace and more commonly happens between the nobility, which is almost always strictly for political reasons only.

Last you heard, things seemed tenser than ever between the trolls and the humans. But other than that, you know jack shit about the Empire’s current political climate with the Human Kingdoms. When you’re this far out in the fringes of the Alternian Empire, any major news tends to reach you last. Good thing you don’t care anyway, not unless it directly disturbs your current way of life. As far as you’re concerned, your loyalty doesn’t lie with anyone but yourself. Not anymore.

“What? Feeling intimidated all of a sudden, Dave?” You tease, elbowing him on the side.

He looks at you with that strange expression on his face again, one you can’t quite read. He’s been a pretty open book in your time of knowing him, but he’s been looking at you with unreadable expressions lately. “No. It’s just different from what I’m used to. But different doesn’t always mean it’s a bad thing.” Is his answer.

You weren’t expecting that. You’re not sure what exactly you were expecting, but somehow, it wasn’t that. And you weren’t expecting how you felt upon knowing his answer either.

So you dutifully ignore it altogether and pull the list of items you need to get from your satchel. You weave your way through the crowd to get to the stalls you need to, picking up the things on your list while Dave follows your trail and passively watches all the scenes playing out in the market.

Most of the trip goes without much of a hitch, except when Correy tries to scam you again and you end up having to go without the spices you came there for. But after storming away from his stall, Dave taps you on the shoulder to show you he swiped what you needed while the vendor was distracted in arguing with you (well, more like you distracted him with your angry ranting). He even took an orange, something you gratefully shared with him.

The two of you laugh and joke about it as you take the route back to Kanaya’s hive after you got everything you needed from the market. You take a short break there and have some late lunch before going out again to do your last task for the day.

You pick up your cart full of your firewood and start making your way to the only blacksmith in the village. Dave continues to be your second shadow for the day, following your every step.

“Are you a wanted thief where you came from, Dave?” You decide to ask him as you walk through the emptier streets, pulling your cart behind you. It’s a much-needed reprieve from all the loud hustle and bustle of the market.

He smiles devilishly at you, and only now are you noticing that he has dimples when he smiles like that. “If you’re wondering if I’ve stolen anything from you that you weren’t aware of, let me assure you that you don’t own any shit I’m interested in.” His writing is accompanied by a breathy cawing that sounds like laughter when you roll your eyes at him. It shouldn’t be as pleasant as it sounds.

“Haha, how fucking funny, Dave. Were you a popular court jester for the royals too? Your levels of insufferability practically match that of a snobby highblood.” You remark snidely. His previously mischievous demeanour seems to falter and he just shrugs his shoulders.

“I don’t know. Maybe I am.” Is his cryptic reply and you make a point of giving him a once over.

“If you are, you don’t look like it.” You retort with a smirk. He huffs indignantly at you, neck plume and tail feathers raising in annoyance. He moves to flick you on the forehead again for your snarky comment, but you catch his hand before he’s able to.

And for a tense moment that seems to stretch on longer than it’s supposed to, the two of you stare at each other. Until a loud voice from one of the upper windows of one of the hives catches both of your attention. “Karkitty! You’re here!”

The local hunter of the village. You almost forgot that she lives with her moirail in the same hive as where he operates his business in.

Nepeta Leijon and Equius Zahhak.

»»———— ☽ ————««

The troll with almost cat-shaped horns disappears from the view of the window only to emerge from a house just a couple of steps ahead of where you and Karkat are. He immediately drops your hand and moves to continue carrying his cart over to the girl.

You frown for a moment before sighing and shaking your head. You’re going to fuck this up, aren’t you?

You follow after him, and the cat horns looking troll almost does a double-take when she sees you. As if she didn’t even notice you the first time she popped out from the window. “Whoa! When did you get yourself a pet Karkitty? I thought you said you hated animals!”

 _Pet_? You instinctively narrow your eyes at her while Karkat rolls his eyes. “He’s a human being, Nepeta, not a gogdamn pet. And I refuse to keep lusii as pets because some of them are actually more intelligent than the supposed ‘intelligent’ life on this land.”

"I know that! I was talking about human animals as pets!" The troll, Nepeta, seems to at least have the decency look embarrassed about her initial claim. “I’m _so so_ furry sorry! It's just a little jarring to see, um, someone like you! You don’t get to see magical creatures with a human face but the body of a bird often! Nepeta Leijon, the best huntress of the village!”

She offers you her clawed hand, and you examine her for the first time. For a self-proclaimed best huntress of the village, she’s pretty short and stout with child-like features. You would’ve guessed her to be no older than eighteen in human years. But with her exposed arms poking out from the fluffy animal hide coat around her shoulders, you have little doubts that she could bench press you with ease.

You eye her outstretched hand for a moment before carefully shaking it, trying not to cringe at the _very_ firm grip she gives you. You attempt to say your name only to abruptly stop yourself mid caw because you forgot about your stupid curse again.

Nepeta looks at you with a puzzled expression, before Karkat steps in for you. “He can’t talk, but his name is Dave. Not that that matters, I’m only here to deliver your moirail’s usual shit. Where is he anyway?”

You glare at him, but he ignores you as Nepeta waves a nonchalant hand. “He’s out right now and I doubt he’ll be back anytime soon. You can just keep your cart in his smithy for now and we can take a stroll through the village to give Dave the grand tour!” She says cheerily, moving towards the two great doors just beside the door she came out from.

Karkat sighs exasperatedly, tiredly running a hand down his face. “Nepeta, you and I both know there’s legitimately nothing worth seeing in a shitty village as small as this one. Like, it’s not even an opinion, it’s just factually correct that this hellhole has nothing to offer that’s worth seeing. Literally nothing. There’s nothing to fucking ‘show’ when there’s nothing even worth admiring. Just some millennia-old buildings and boring trolls who have nothing better to do with their lives than gossip and makeup stories about everyone else’s lives that’s just as miserably dull as theirs. And since when did Equius willingly go out of his precious smithy??”

All while Karkat does his usual ranting, Nepeta fishes a key from her pants pocket and opens up the two doors to reveal a typical blacksmith’s workplace. A wide space with a few finished weapons on display, some blade casts on hard stone, an anvil, some hammers, and a few different smithies of varying sizes.

“He has other friends, Karkat! He’s not a complete recluse like you, y’know.” She says teasingly, taking his cart full of stacks of firewood and rolling it into the smithy herself. “Besides, have you taken him to see the heart of the village, just past the marketplace? With the fountain? Have you, hm??”

Karkat groans. “Does that piece of shit even work anymore? Last time I checked, nobody has bothered to fix the damn thing for two sweeps now.”

“Actually, the local handywoman and the local mason, Drazar and Fallow, renovated it just a perigee ago! So it’s functional with a few enhancements! You’ve gotta see it, Karkitty!” She says it so enthusiastically that even you can believe it’s worth seeing. You’re still pretty sure it’s subpar to what an actual city can offer as an attraction though.

“I don’t have a choice in this, do I?” He says defeatedly, and the catgirl shakes her head just as she’s closing the doors to the smithy. “Dave? Are you coming?”

You’re a bit surprised that he addresses you because it feels like they’ve both forgotten you even exist. Nepeta smiles brightly at you, but it only makes the pit in your stomach worse. Still, you manage to smile and simply give them a nod of your head. 

“Yes! I promise you won’t regret this!” Then the bubbly troll quite literally jumps for joy.

And lands right onto Karkat’s arm.

You’re going to regret this, aren’t you?

»»———— ☽ ————««

You definitely regret it.

Everything about your life just seems to suck immensely lately. First, your Kingdom gets invaded by a stupid fish queen. Then you get cursed to take the form of a literal bird by said stupid fish queen. And on top of every shitty hand, you’ve been dealt with, you get shot down by some jackass human hunters you had the misfortune of crossing paths with in your attempt to go find help for your said invaded Kingdom.

But after all that, for a moment, things started looking up for you. And by looking up, you mean the ‘no death in your immediate future’ kind. A chance meeting with an ornery mutant troll who happens to talk almost as much as you. If you could talk.

He sheltered you when he had no obligation to outside of a moral one, something most trolls typically don’t have. He was uncharacteristically kind, even if he acted like he was very reluctant to do so. And he was charming. In his own way.

So charming in fact, you’ve thought about kissing him. More than once. In your short one month, three weeks, one day and twenty-one hours of knowing him.

And as if it wasn’t hard enough for your normal self to express your feelings to another living being, life decided it just had to fuck you further by making everything more complicated by making you virtually unable to communicate normally. Not mention the fact that you’ve been avoiding your own moral responsibility for one month, three weeks, one day and twenty-one hours now!

You should be in Prospit right now. Getting the help your Kingdom needs. But no. Instead, you decided hopelessly pining after a painfully unavailable irate troll is worth more of your time.

What stings worse is probably the fact that you’re only seriously thinking about what you could be doing right now because said painfully unavailable irate troll has someone more outgoing pining for him too. Probably for far longer than you have too, from the way she acts.

Which isn’t bad, but you’re at a serious disadvantage in the competition for his affections.

It’s not like you have a valid excuse for your actions anymore either. You’re not injured and bedridden anymore, so what the fuck are you doing right now?

Overall, this is an undeniably miserable experience for you.

Yeah. You definitely regret coming along.

Watching them talk to each other with greater ease than you stings in a way that makes your chest constrict every time you look at them. You feel awkward and invisible. Like you’re third-wheeling on a couple’s date who only asked you to tag along because they pitied your sad, pathetic state of crippling loneliness.

So you pretend the boring buildings and average architecture is worth admiring as you stroll through the streets of the village while the two of them talk and do some catching up.

These are times where you wish you could interject and join the conversation. But it’s really hard. Especially when Karkat’s unable to give you the attention you need to properly communicate with him like he usually does when it's just the two of you. Writing down your response takes time, and by the time you have something to say, both of them would continue the conversation into a new topic. So you stopped trying to unless either of them have something to say to you.

Which is practically never in the whole thirty minutes you’ve been walking with them. Nepeta seems to have forgotten you exist altogether, intent on keeping Karkat busy with her. Whether she’s doing it on purpose is up for debate, because from what you can tell so far, she’s a genuinely sweet troll who made an honest mistake when you first met her.

But knowing that only makes the knot in your stomach worse.

Even when you finally make it to the fountain after taking the long way there, you simply smile and write that you liked it when Karkat asks you what you thought of it.

Considering what you had to walk through to get here, the polished lion statue spewing water from its mouth isn't worth it at all.

So you tell them you’re gonna walk back alone because the sun is already setting and all that walking around has tired you out. Karkat is understanding, in his own evasive way of saying it, and tells you he’ll be back at Kanaya’s as soon as he closes the deal with the Equius guy.

Yeah. This is one of the dumbest decisions you regret ever agreeing to. And you have a shit ton of dumb decisions you’ve made in the twenty-four years you’ve been alive on this flat rock. A whole hall of fame of dumb decisions. But this may be one of the top dumbest decisions you’ve ever made in your life.

After watching Nepeta cling onto Karkat’s arm the whole walk to the fountain, your mind can’t stop thinking about one thing. 

They… Looked like a proper couple. And you hate it. You hate it because it irks you to the point that it feels like your nerves are coming undone. You hate it because you wish you could hold him as freely and as closely as Nepeta does. You hate it because your fingers ache to know what his skin feels like under your touch. You hate it because you hate yourself for wanting him to look at you so badly, it feels like you’re choking on your own air.

You want him. You want him to want you too. But you know that that can never come to pass. There are too many things keeping you apart, and that’s what breaks your heart the most.

In the end, your solitary walk back to Kanaya’s hive leaves your hand feeling cold and painfully empty.


	6. The Unspoken Truth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kanaya has finally made a successful curse curing potion! Just in time for the Autumnal Fest too!
> 
> But will everything go as planned? Or will secrets ruin the festival spirit?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heads up, long chapter this upd8 ^^;;

┍━━━━━━━━━━━━━┑

_“Seven for a secret_

_Never to be told_

_He never said who he is_

_A secret he tried to withhold.”_

┕━━━━━━━━━━━━━┙

Dave is acting weird.

Well, weirder than usual for a human cursed with a transmutation spell that makes him half-bird.

After you came back from that encounter with Nepeta, he’s been unusually… Distant. Throughout this past week, all his answers to your questions have been short and curt. If you’re lucky, he’ll actually speak- well, write- more than two words. But he’d usually only answer you with nods or shakes of his head when you try engaging him in a conversation.

After the three days of this, you decided it was just best to leave him to do his own shit. Whatever that is, because he’s also made the habit of going out as soon as he’s had breakfast. He only ever comes back whenever he gets hungry before fucking off again until night finally comes. Where he fucks off to and what he does to keep himself entertained, you have no gogdamn clue.

But you got the message that he doesn’t want to interact with you loud and clear. Why? Well…

The conclusion you came to is… At best, absurd. At worst, completely narcissistic. So you just rejected the idea altogether. Even if it _is_ true, it’s not like what could happen afterwards is any more plausible than the conclusion you came to. Instead, you decided to put it out of your mind because you’re going nowhere, going around in circles about the same damn thing over and over again. It’s not worth the frustration.

No matter the reason behind why Dave is being a bigger nookwipe than usual, it’s none of your business. He’s allowed to do whatever the hell he wants because he’s not your responsibility. After Kanaya makes a successful potion, the two of you can part ways and you can continue living the same life as before.

You don’t give a single flying fuck what he does with his life. Not a single fuck was given at all.

In any case, with Kanaya busy doing you a favour, you’ve taken it upon yourself to do the chores around her hive for her as a form of repayment for her services.

She fussed about how you didn’t need to do this for her the first few days you started doing it. But she eventually caved and thanked you for your help.

You have no idea what Kanaya does in her bedroom, but you can tell that it’s no easy task. When you managed to cross paths with her one day, you asked her about it. She conceded that the challenge she took on may be harder than she originally expected. But since she’s already started, she’s determined to see it through.

She’s a strong-willed woman. And you don’t have any doubts about her capabilities, but still, you can’t help it when your pale instincts kick in at her tired appearance.

Kanaya is very polished for someone disguising herself as a lowly olive seamstress. Her clothes may be typical of lowbloods, but the way she carries herself, and the impeccable black pigment she applies on her lips every morning, shows shades of who she used to be. For anyone who’s never encountered nobility, it’s easy to overlook these things about her because they wouldn’t even know what to look for.

But for you, it’s easy to pick up on traditionally highblood mannerisms she still has to this day. Like the airy but poised way she eats and handles her utensils, a perfect posture any highblood governess would be proud of, or the restrained elegance in her strides as she walks. Her jade blood sensibilities shine through in the tiny cracks of her disguise.

You only notice because you used to be surrounded by trolls just like her. Trolls of ‘noble’ blood. You’ve observed how they acted for sweeps, pretending like you can be one of them.

But in the past few days, since she started this curse-breaking project, you’ve also noticed that these things have been dulled. Although you don’t have official ties to her as a moirail, you can’t help but feel like you should do something to help her as a friend.

Kanaya is the type to get absorbed in her work, as long as she sets her mind to it. It’s a respectable trait, but she does tend to overwork until she’s satisfied with what she’s accomplished for the day. Sometimes, you wish she'd take it easy.

But it’s not like you can offer her help in any meaningful manner. You know just as much as a headless squawkbeast about magic. Even less about curse breaking or potion-making, if that’s possible. So you can’t exactly help her in ‘cracking the code’ or however that shit worked. Magical science bs is not your expertise.

All you can do is give her fewer things to worry about so she can put all her focus into the curse-breaking project.

Kanaya’s hive doesn’t have as many things to take care of daily like yours does. Still, there are a few things that need to be done every day. Going out to the water pump and filling up pails to make sure there’s a steady supply of water for usage is one of them. The task itself isn’t too laborious, but you do have to make multiple trips back and forth to have enough for both the kitchen and the privy.

Carrying back the buckets and making sure not to spill any of it is the hard part. The load isn’t too heavy and the distance isn’t too far, but going back and forth is an arduous process you wish you could just skip.

Once you have a steady supply of water, you clean up all the dishes left in the sink. You tend to zone out at this part of the day because the task doesn’t need a whole lot of care and attention from you.

Except for the one time when Dave slammed the door open as he returned from wherever the fuck and a glass slipped from your fingers because of it. Dave did say sorry,- well- more like cawed, but you assumed that’s basically what he said because he helped you clean it up without being asked to. That was the only time he wasn’t an avoidant dick to you this past week.

Then, once you’re finished with your daily chores around the hive, you’d prepare lunch. You’re the one who usually does most of the cooking since you started staying with Kanaya, but she did cook breakfast for you a couple of times. You don’t get to see her often ever since she started the curse-breaking, but on the occasions, she remembers the time, she does come down to have a meal with you.

Dave never once ate at the same time as you and Kanaya since your first initial day of arriving at Kanaya’s doorstep.

If Kanaya doesn’t remember to come down from her bedroom, you carry a plate of food for her upstairs. She profusely thanks you every time before locking herself back up in her bedroom. Sometimes, she’d ask you to run a few errands for her when you did your delivery. They’re mostly just errands about gathering key ingredients she needs. They’re easy enough to locate, usually something you can buy from the market.

Other than that though, you rarely see her outside of her self-imposed isolation.

After lunch, you have the rest of the afternoon off to do whatever you wanted. You would think having a lot of free time is great, but it’s by far your least favourite time of the day. Mostly because this village is so small there’s barely anything here to entertain yourself. Aside from perusing the market, this settlement literally has nothing to offer. You thought you hated living in the woods, but hate staying here more than the woods. You can almost empathize with the villagers who manage to sustain themselves purely off of mindless gossip. _Almost_.

So you usually spent it reading the books on Kanaya's shelf. She’s lent you a couple of them, but you never really got the chance to read a whole lot of them to completion because your life in the woods keeps you busy enough with chores.

She’s got quite a collection to choose from. You managed to stave off the boredom that way. And when your eyes got tired of reading, you went out and sought… Ugh. _Social interaction_.

You’ve got a very limited pool of choices to choose from for socialization. In your whole three sweeps of occasionally visiting this village, you’ve only made four connections you guess you can classify as ‘friends.’ Aside from Kanaya, there’s Aradia, who is her sheep herding neighbour. Her husband, Sollux, who mans an assortment stall on occasion in the market (purely just so he has something to do that makes use of his abacus). Then there’s Nepeta, and her moirail, Equius. He owns a smithy as well as a stable just outside the village.

Aradia likes to chat your ear off about whatever comes to mind, usually about strange and morbid things. The most off-putting part of it is that she does it with enthusiasm. Sollux tolerates your company just because literally anything else is better than doing absolutely nothing. Nepeta is nepeta, and the only time you really see Equius is when he’s with her. The troll is unbearable with his constant sweating and tendency to go on and on about horses.

You never see Dave until the end of the day. Sometimes, you don’t even see him at all because he returns long after you’ve gone to bed. Going to bed early is easy when you’ve got nothing else to keep you up.

Usually.

This is where you seem to find yourself now, staring at the ceiling beams of the guest bedroom. The flame of the lantern on the bedside cabinet flickers.

Try as you might to get him out of your head, you can’t. Like ink on white linen, no matter how hard you try to scrub him away, he just won’t go away. Even when you close your eyes, thoughts nag and bother you.

They’re mostly questions about him you would rather not answer within yourself. Not because you don’t want to, but because you can’t.

Shouldn’t.

The faint creak of the door downstairs floats up through the floorboards of your room. A flare of annoyance rises out of you and you don’t even know why you’re mad. You don’t have any reason to.

Aside from the fact that it’s late, you’re tired, and you just want to sleep.

So just like the ink-stained clothes he ruined when you left him alone for too long, you stuff them away to be hidden. Out from your line of sight, so you can forget it even happened.

Out of sight, out of mind.

You finally blow out the candle, letting the darkness swallow you whole.

»»———— ☽ ————««

You’re going through the same motions you've done every other day. After staying over at Kanaya’s for a whole week and almost five days now, you feel like you’ve overstayed your welcome at this point. But in that whole time you've spent here, Kanaya has made two vials. Both of did not work.

You don’t even think you’ve stayed in the village for longer than four days before. You’re not sure you want to stay here any longer than that the next time you have to make the journey here.

With your already low tolerance for mind-numbing social interaction, your social quota is way over its limit at this point. You think you might’ve reached and gone over your limit about four times now. A whole week ago. You stopped caring about keeping track of your meaningless unit of measurement for village shenanigans after the seventh day.

In any case, you’ve gotten into a sense of groove about how the day is supposed to go. It’s pretty much the same thing every day.

After you’ve done the dishes and did your cleaning around the hive, you proceed to cook lunch. Dave wasn’t around when you woke up and you didn’t bother searching for him. He can take care of himself, as he’s clearly shown you in the past week. At least you know he’s not causing trouble in the village.

The meal you cook isn’t all that different from any other dish you’ve cooked up in the past. While this is a farming village, unless you’re royalty, you won’t get to see a lot of variety in your diet. You have the great fortune of not having to share your hunted meat, but that kind of food is a rarity in a village like this.

The butcher's shop is a very popular one, considering he's the only butcher in the village. Nepeta sells her hunted meat to him, but he sells out all his stock before the week even finishes. So it’s bread and vegetable mush for you. Hooray.

You pour the cooked meal into a wooden bowl and grab a tall glass of water before making your way upstairs to deliver them to Kanaya. You haven’t seen her outside of her bedroom for three whole days now.

You carefully knock on her door with the bowl of food in your hand. It takes her more than a few seconds before she finally opens up her door, looking especially haggard but smiling brilliantly than ever before. “Karkat! Good morning. Please, come in, we’ve got much to discuss.”

You frown, but follow her inside nonetheless when she opens the door wider for you to enter. You’ve never been to the seamstress’s personal bedroom. As you suspected, it’s as immaculate as the rest of her hive usually is, aside from her writing desk which is covered in parchment paper and empty ink bottles. Normally, a troll of her caste would have a proper respiteblock with a recuperacoon, but only nobility would have such luxuries. Since no one else knows her to be a rare jade, nor does this village have a steady supply of slime to fill a recuperacoon with, she’s stuck with a simple bed like the rest of the commoners.

Kanaya restlessly flits around her room, trying to quickly arrange her mess in an orderly fashion as if she didn’t expect to invite you inside in the first place. You carefully place her food on the writing desk, making sure not to disturb whatever work she’s doing on it.

“You do know it’s way past morning at this point, right?” You ask although you meant it as a rhetorical question. She pauses her actions of tidying up her desk to look at her closed window.

With a sigh, she moves to open it and let the afternoon sun into her darkened bedroom. “I sincerely apologize for my frayed state. I believe my last restful sleep was two days ago.”

You frown at that. “Kanaya, you do know I care more about your overall well-being than getting this shit done as soon as possible, right? I can stay here for however long you need me to until you finish it.”

She seems to regard you for a moment, something unreadable behind her thoughtful expression. “I know.” She finally says, returning to her writing desk. “If you didn’t, you could’ve dumped Dave on me and returned to your solitary life a whole week ago. Although, who truly made you stay is still up for speculation.”

Your brows furrow deeper at that because you have no gogdamn clue what she meant by that. “Why stay up for, what, three fucking days straight now? Jegus christ, Kanaya. Please tell me you had a good reason for doing something completely thoughtless and idiotic. Unflattering insomniac isn’t a good look on you.” You say instead, completely ignoring her previous statement.

The jade blood smiles for a moment, even though she keeps her eyes on her work. “Since when did you know what looks good on me, Karkat? Last I checked, you couldn’t even tell the difference between verdant and chartreuse.” She shoots back. You roll your eyes.

“Are we going to play this cat and mouse game all afternoon? Because if so, I want to quit while I’m ahead.” Finally, she looks up at you before glancing over at her alchemy set beside her writing desk. It resembles a kitchen, although it’s far smaller than the one downstairs. It has a stove-like heating mechanism and various pots and glasses in strange shapes, connected by looping tubes. It’s meant to brew all sorts of potions and salves, but Kanaya likes to focus on things that heal or are generally beneficial to others. While what she’s doing is technically alchemy, she prefers the term ‘healer’ or ‘sylph’ for her side business.

“In the simplest terms I can best tell you, I had an idea a few days ago. I put it to the test and all my hypotheses around the idea seemed to be correct, so I got a bit overzealous in my endeavour. I’ve been hard at work, trying to come up with the right combinations to get the right results…” She explains, taking a stirrer and stirring the pot lightly boiling on the stove mechanism. After a moment, she extinguishes the flame under it using basic Space magic and pours the solution into one of the strangely shaped glasses. She mutters quiet words a few times while touching the glass containing the oil-like liquid, making it briefly foam and change colours before settling back into its original state.

You watch her work as she goes back and forth from her writing desk to her alchemy set. There’s a strange grace in her movements as she effortlessly goes through the motions of potion brewing. Eventually, she mixes all of the liquids into a small vial. The resulting liquid is almost as clear as water, with faint blue particles floating around inside it.

“I believe this one will finally work in fixing up your friend’s unusual speech impediment.” She tells you with a smile. You examine it closely for a while, before giving her a nod. “Third time’s the charm, as they say.”

“Thank you, Kanaya. You didn’t have to go this far to help me, but you did anyway. I’m grateful for everything you’ve done.” You tell her sincerely, giving her an honest smile. The seamstress simply waves her hand dismissively before redirecting it to cover her mouth when she yawns.

“Please, it is no trouble at all. You’re a friend. Now, go and find Dave.” She tells you, an almost cryptic smile on her face. “I believe I’m due for my long-awaited date with slumber.”

You thank her once again before finally leaving her room to let her retire for the rest of the day.

»»———— ☽ ————««

With the finished vial in hand, you head out of Kanaya’s hive in search of Dave.

He still hasn’t come back from wherever he fucks off to every day. Usually, he’d come back whenever he felt like to grab his meal before setting out again, which you didn’t have a problem with

But now you actually have to find him. Then again, you could just stay back in the hive and wait for him to come back. But then you’d feel like an egregious dick for being too lazy to bring him the thing he’s been anticipating for in however long he’s been in bird form now.

So off you went, roaming around the village, looking for the feathery asshole.

You walk around for a while, asking the few you actualy feel comfortable conversing with. Which is only like, three trolls in total. Equius tells you he hasn’t seen anyone but Nepeta for the past four days and she’s currently out hunting right now. Sollux tells you he doesn't pay attention to village gossip, and all Aradia can tell you is that she thought she saw him in the woods while she was out herding her flock to roam the hills. 

Aradia’s lead is the only one you’ve got after spending most of the early afternoon strolling aimlessly through the village. It’s flimsy as fuck, but it’s not like you’ve got anything else to follow. So after chatting with the rust, you head out in the direction you came from when you first arrived.

By the time you enter the forest, the sun is already beginning to set, basking your surroundings in rosy pink and orange tones. You wander as aimlessly as you did back in the village, not quite sure what you’re looking for to locate the bird hybrid.

For the most part, you find your mind wandering elsewhere too as you walk through the underbrush and bat through the low hanging branches. There’s a faint melody of songbirds in the air, only disturbed by your footsteps crunching the leaves on the forest floor.

Breathtaking as it is, the scenery is always the same anywhere you look. It’s practically the perfect space for you to let your mind wander. With your goal being to locate Dave, it’s hard for your mind to avoid thinking of him.

As soon as you catch yourself thinking of him though, you quickly shake your head as if doing so would dispel the thoughts. Still, your mind stubbornly finds it’s back to him anyway.

Somehow, someway, he seems to manage to burrow himself in your mind even when you try your hardest not to think of him. After practically living together for almost two perigees now, his sudden absence seems to be having some strange effects on you. Things you’re not quite sure you understand. Things you don’t want to understand.

The vial seems to burn in your pants pocket, taunting you. It’s the physical embodiment of your unspoken contract with him coming to an end.

You should be grateful for it. You’ve never liked socialization anyway and nursing him back to health was a selfish endeavour in the first place. You were reluctant to let him stay, so why in the name of all nine circles of hell did you extend your time with him for this long? Why the fuck would you go to this length to help him?

Try as you might to rationalize your decisions, you can’t keep coming up with excuses that don’t involve caring about the dumb bird in one way or another. It's plain and simple. You care.

Dave has become a friend to you. You developed an attachment, and you let it make decisions in brief lapses of judgement you were too stubborn not to see through. That’s the only certain thing you can’t deny anymore.

At least admitting it to yourself now makes you come to terms with what you have to do next when you see Dave again.

You have to say goodbye.

As much as you’ve been an asshole to each other these last few days, you can at least let your guard down a bit to give a genuine farewell to a fair feather friend. You don’t make many friends, that much is evident.

The least you can do is see this one-off properly.

As you finally feel a finality to this conclusion you’ve come to, an unusual strain of music takes you away from your inner thoughts. The pitchy voices of songbirds have faded into the background, becoming the accompanying vocals of a sound unlike any you’ve ever heard in all your time of living in the middle of a forest.

It’s an almost haunting refrain, the low cooing chirps highlighted by the more high pitched cheering of songbirds. The breeze seems to carry the music through the leaves, creating a harmonious tune alongside the atmospheric melody of the singing birds. It sounds deliberate yet unintentional at the same time, a symphony only a composer like nature can achieve.

You follow the singing almost mindlessly, entranced by the soft notes floating with unmatched grace in the air.

You hear him before you see him. The deep whistles and low cawing become familiar the closer you get until you finally find the person you’ve been looking for since the beginning.

As soon as you lock eyes though, the nagging sensation of something almost magical seems to drop altogether as the melody stops as abruptly as a musician dropping their instrument. With a loud crash and a flinch from you.

Dave is so startled by your appearance that he loses his grip on the branch he was perched on and falls straight down the forest floor. The resounding crash that echoes through the woods sounds so fucking painful, you immediately hope he didn’t break or sprain anything again. Even the birds that were perched on nearby trees are disturbed by the noise, flying away simultaneously into the reddened skies above.

When you approach him to where he landed, you find him looking up at you with wide blown up pupils and a very red face. There’s something strangely vulnerable and disarming in the way he’s staring at you that it makes you hold your breath for a moment.

“What the fuck was that?” You snap, louder than you expected. He blinks up at you, a dumbfounded expression on his face. He seems to grow a shade darker.

When he does attempt to usher a reply, all that comes out is a mangled crowing and cawing, as if he’s stumbling over his words even in bird speak. Then he snaps a hand over his mouth, averting his eyes from you. Somehow, he continues to look even more embarrassed than before. You’re completely lost on why.

With a sigh, you reach out to offer him your hand so he can get up. He stares at your outstretched hand just long enough that you start feeling awkward about it. 

“If you don’t want help getting up, then fine. You can-” You start to say, retracting your hand when he suddenly grabs it and attempts to stand up only to bring you tumbling down with him.

After another loud noise disturbs the forest when you make a violent impact on the ground and a lot of squawking from Dave, you groan exaggeratedly. 

“What the actual fucking shit were you thinking-” You stop yourself mid-sentence because when you open your eyes again, you find Dave has fallen on top of you in the scuffle, his face only inches away from yours.

You forget to breathe.

As soon as you make eye contact with Dave though, he scrambles up to put as much distance between the two of you as possible. You force yourself to breathe again, trying to shake the moment out of your head as you stand up too and dust away leaves and twigs out of your attire.

When you’re satisfied you don’t have anything else on you after that clusterfuck, you raise your head to look at Dave. He’s avoiding looking at you altogether, still red, but with an unreadable expression on his face.

You try to ignore it.

Instead, you pull the glass vial from your pants pocket, surprised but utterly relieved to find that it wasn’t crushed after the stupid bullshit that just happened. Dave finally looks at you again, but his attention seems to solely be on the vial.

“Prrtth?” His chirr sounds like a question, and you can deduce by now that he’s probably asking about what the vial’s about.

You toss the thing over to him and he catches it with ease. “It’s Kanaya’s latest attempt at breaking your bird speech impediment. She said she was confident in it this time and told me to give it to you as soon as possible.”

The hope that so evidently blooms on his face makes you feel weird inside. His gaze flits up to you once, uncertain at first. Then, he uncorks the vial and downs the whole thing.

His pupils dilate from very big to very small and back again before he speaks. “Karkat?”

A beat of silence passes.

Both of you stare in shock at one another, because for some reason, neither of you believed that it would actually work. 

That was a backhanded comment to Kanaya and you did _not_ mean anything by it. The point is, you’ve gotten so used to hearing Dave purr and coo as a bird that it’s hella bizarre to hear him not speaking like a bird anymore.

And seriously, the first thing he utters as soon as he’s able to talk to test out if the potion worked is your name?

“What? Would you have preferred it if I continued calling you ‘Kat’ even after I got my voice back?” He quips, catching you off guard. Shit. Did you say that out loud?

Dave smirks at you, and the way his lips barely quiver up to form it makes your stomach flutter for just a moment. You frown.

“I didn’t think you could be any more annoying than you already were, but fuck me for underestimating your mastery of that skill.” You retort, and his laugh catches you off guard yet again. It’s a throaty, coarse laugh. One you can’t help but to compare to how he almost cackles as a crow. It’s loud and reverberating, but it feels like he’s laughing at more than just your snarky comment.

He seems to be genuinely delighted to finally have his voice back and you fight the urge to smile at his reaction.

“Thank you.” He says it with such unexpected sincerity that you don’t know how to react to it. Even he seems to be surprised at his sincerity, cheeks taking on a red hue once again. The silence that stretches afterwards is almost painful as you scramble your mind for something to say that isn’t stupid or too sentimental.

You have to say goodbye. But how-

“Karkat!” Another voice calls out from the other side of the little forest clearing you’ve found yourself in. You turn to look at who it came from, surprised to find the stout form of Nepeta, clutching her bow and arrow from a tree.

The huntress jumps down from her perch with the elegance of a feline. “What are mew- I mean you- doing here??” She inquires as she approaches, only noticing Dave then when her eyes briefly flit over to him. Some of her initial excitement at seeing you seem to deflate just a little.

“Oh, uh, I was just looking for Dave. It was an errand for Kanaya.” You reply, casting a glance at the bird-human. He seems tense, neck plume puffed up and tail feathers raised.

“Oh! Well, you guys should probably return to the village. It’s getting dark out, and it might be hard for him to navigate around the forest once the sun completely disappears over the horizon.”

“Firstly, I can find my way back just fine without anyone’s help. Secondly, don’t talk about me like I’m not a few feet from you.” Dave pipes up, and both you and Nepeta turn to look at him. His pupils are dilated, but they seem only focused on Nepeta.

Sensing Dave’s agitation, Nepeta holds her hands up in placation. “Oh gog, I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to offend you, I just didn’t know you can speak now. I didn’t mean anything by it when I was talking to Karkitty.”

You sigh. “It’s okay Nepeta, it’s not your fault. Dave’s just being _unnecessarily_ hostile.” You shoot him a glance and Dave simply scoffs and crosses his arms. “What are you doing out here anyway? Didn’t you just go hunting yesterday?”

Nepeta grins at you. “I’ve been asked to hunt extra animals for the festival this weekend! I usually don’t hunt this often on a single perigee, but the village needs a looooooot of meat for the celebration!” She tells you cheerfully.

You share a look with Dave.

“What festival?” You ask.

»»———— ☽ ————««

The Autumnal Fest is an annual festival that celebrates the end of a long and productive summer. It’s meant as a last hurrah for trolls before they enter the fall season and start preparing for the long winter. While most trolls are uniquely built to withstand more things in life than humans, winter has always been a tough obstacle for your race.

Most warm-blooded trolls can handle the rapidly changing temperatures of each season, but the same can’t be said for cold-blooded trolls. The higher you are on the spectrum, the colder your blood is. It’s quite similar to reptiles, where cold blood makes it harder for your body to shift its internal temperature to survive the cold. That’s why the Troll Empire’s Capital is located in the south, where the weather is far milder.

Seadwellers aren’t meant for the cold. While all trolls have thicker and tougher skin than humans to aid in the survival of the cold, it’s still hard for the highbloods. If left out in the cold for more than a few days with no source of heat, highbloods are susceptible to just keeling over from hypothermia.

The Autumnal Fest was created by the ruling class because of this, a last chance for highbloods to indulge in excess and party all perigee long before they’re forced to hibernate over the winter season. It’s a big deal in every troll town or village you go to. Although the celebration is mostly made for the convenience of the ruling class, the lowbloods have also joined in the festivities over time. It’s a whole week of nothing but drinking ale and lawless partying till the early hours of the day.

Bigger townships would even hold street-long parades, with elaborate floats sponsored by each of the noble families of that township. You’ve personally seen the festival in all its glory back when you used to live in the Capital.

You remember seeing all the lights and the glamour and being utterly captivated by it when you first saw it. But it’s been sweeps since then, and you can’t say you miss it all that much.

Still, the twinkling fairy lights that decorate the village center brings back good memories of the past. Red, and orange, and yellow streamers line every hive nearby, and trolls litter the floor with festive confetti. Around corners of the center are lanterns with creatively decorated faces, most of which are winter or autumn-themed. Even the lion, who the villagers have named ‘Paddie’, is dressed up for the celebration with someone’s top hat and a striped red and brown necktie.

The party of the village can’t compare to what you’ve witnessed back in the Capital, but it’s got some charm. It seems all seven hundred eighty-six residents of the village came out to celebrate the occasion.

There are long tables at one end of the village center full of delicious cooked food with seating arrangements nearby as a place to eat. Kanaya enjoys a meal with some of her other friends at one table. A string quartet plays live music for the village folk not far from the fountain ledge you’re seated on. You spot Aradia and Sollux dancing a jig together, a rare smile on the gold blood. Some party games are also present, like bobbing for apples, a ring toss, and an axe-throwing and archery competition. Even Equius has come out of his smithy with Nepeta and is losing to her at the axe throwing competition.

The whole place is pulsing with life and noise. Neighbours and friends come together to chat and laugh together, children and teens rush about the plaza playing tag, and both old and new lovers spend time with one another happily.

It’s… It’s a sight you didn’t think you’d be so nostalgic over. Even now, watching everyone living their lives and enjoying themselves, you find your mind bringing you back flashes of memory. Of red eyes and sharp smiles. Of reverberating cackles and unsteady flirtations.

You still miss her sometimes. On most days, you can believe you’re over her because she rarely pops up into your mind anymore. On most days, you can believe you’re content with your quiet and solitary life.

But not on days like this.

“You doing alright, nubs? You look like a crow in deep thought over something super boring. Like death. Or taxes. Death and taxes? Damn man, that sounds hella miserable.” A voice comes from your side, and you don’t even have to look to know who it is. His deep strident, sing-song voice is easy to place. Besides, no one else dares to call you ‘nubs.’

“Says the literal half crow.” You rebuke. When you glance over at him, you find him smirking once more, narrow eyes only focused on you amidst the chaos of the festival.

“If anything, I’d say that makes me more qualified to judge you for sulking at a party like this. Then again, knowing you are who you are, I can’t say I’m surprised. You’re a party shitter through and through.” He says easily, turning his gaze to look out at the rest of the festival-goers. Even if he’s been talking to you clearly for almost a whole day now, you still find his voice strange.

Dave speaks in a way you’ve never come across. Then again, that might just be because he’s a human and you’ve never come across many humans. Nor have you spent as much time with one as you have with him. His voice has a certain edge and clarity to it, and the word that pops into your mind to describe it is ‘polished’. There’s something about it that feels so familiar to you, but you can’t quite place why.

"What the hell do you want, Dave?" You ask, getting straight to the point. He pouts at you, feathers all ruffled.

"You were frowning and I thought I'd try to lighten your mood with my company before you start making everyone else depressed with that ever-present storm cloud above your head. Seriously man, how could you rain on a parade like this? Bad party etiquette all around, I'm very disappointed in your underperformance, Karkat."

“I’m really starting to regret ever helping you get your voice back. You’re more annoying than a squawkbeast that keeps repeating its name.” You say, shifting to lean your arm on your leg so you can rest your chin on your hand.

“Are you seriously saying you prefer me as a mute?” He inquires, but when you chance a glance at him, you find a playful expression on his face. You quickly look away and force a scowl on your face when you feel the telltale sign of something stirring in your chest.

“Didn’t think I’d have to spell it out for you, but what did I expect? This past week has only proved that the only thing inside your pan is empty air and an unchecked ego.” You reply, voice clipped.

“Maybe you should do something about it instead of running your mouth all day complaining. Nobody likes a whiner, ‘Kat.”

"You want me to shut you up permanently?" You inquire rhetorically, each word latent with sarcasm.

"Yeah, sure. You're all bark with no bite, Karkat. I can think of plenty of ways you can shut me up."

Is he-?

You glance at him warily and he throws you a carefree look until he takes note of your expression. You can practically see the gears turning in his head as his brain catches up with what he just said. What it had implied.

"Are you talking about homicide or-"

Dave stands up suddenly before you could even finish your sentence. “Wanna dance?” He asks you out of nowhere, offering you his clawed hand. Maybe it’s the lager you took a few sips of earlier when you first arrived at the party. Maybe it’s the way the setting sun frames his face just right behind him, making him seem almost ethereal. Maybe it’s the feelings you know the name of but won’t admit because your time with him is almost up.

Maybe it’s all of those. Maybe it’s none of them at all.

But who gives a fuck? You don’t. You can't believe you haven't up until this point. You don’t need to give anybody a reason why you threw all the fucks to the wind and took his hand.

There’s no point in continuing to torture yourself over things you can’t control. It’s the last day you get to spend time with him, and you’d only ruin things for yourself if you don’t at least have a little fun before he has to leave you.

So you took his hand and you let yourself smile when he smiles at you. You let him drag you to where the string quartet is playing their music, to where all the other dancers are spending their energy not giving a shit about what other trolls thought of their dancing. You let yourself enjoy the last hours of the dying light, laughing and dancing and holding his hand all the way through.

And even when the musicians make it known they’ll be playing their last song and start a slow tune, you barely give it a thought when you take his hand in his hesitant request for a last dance.

He likes you. You like him. You both know it, even if neither of you will ever say it. You can see it in the way he looks at you, crimson eyes almost bashful but happy that you share his feelings.

Time is ticking. Time is always ticking. Time doesn’t wait for anyone. You know this, but you think Dave knows it better. You just wish it would tick slower sometimes.

Or that the horses that disrupt the festivities could’ve waited just a minute longer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry, but this is just one of the many cliffhangers I have planned :')


	7. The Princess Cavalry

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rose and John have finally found Dave.
> 
> But how will this affect Dave's new relationships with the trolls he's befriended?

┍━━━━━━━━━━━━━┑

_“Eight for a wish_

_Only to the night_

_Do I dare recite_

_I wish for his kiss.”_

┕━━━━━━━━━━━━━┙

Dread. It was the first thing you felt when you saw who rode in with the horses that silenced the festivities.

Then relief. Then happiness. Then dread again.

You are a storm of conflicting emotions as you look to your haggard sister’s face and your best friend’s wearied joy. But you feel your heart sink when you look back at Karkat’s face, an undeniable cloud of hurt and betrayal clear on his face. The blatant Derse insignia on your sibling’s seer dress is hard to miss.

You feel yourself die a little inside when he drops your hand and takes a step back from you. It feels like a giant chasm is opening between the two of you, taking him away far from your reach.

But before you can say anything to him, Rose jumps from her horse and runs straight to you, tears in her eyes. She embraces you in her arms, holding you tightly against her lithe form and you return her crushing hug.

John hangs back behind Rose, letting you have your much-awaited sibling reunion as she dampens your black feathers with her tears. You hold your sister close while a whirlwind of questions bounces around your head.

But you find your eyes searching the crowd that has gathered around you. Eventually, you find his piercing gaze, as red as yours. “Meet me back at Kanaya’s.” He mouths to you, before disappearing into the shadows of the night.

A new wave of dread settles itself in your gut as you hold Rose, patting her back consolingly.

»»———— ☽ ————««

“So, you’re... Derse royalty?” Kanaya asks as she hands each person present in the room a glass of water.

The place you’ve lived in for the past two weeks is brightly lit with lanterns similar to the ones lighting the village center for the festival. When you arrived with Rose and John in tow, Kanaya was quick to usher you inside and lock all her windows and doors to keep the curious village folk out.

Rose has perched herself on the leather seat opposite to Karkat while you stand between your sister’s seat and the little dining set where John and Kanaya are sitting. A long tense silence stretched between the five of you before Kanaya went ahead and started asking questions whilst she did her duties of hospitality as the owner of the house.

The first was, of course, getting to know each other. Including you.

“Yes. David Elizabeth Strider, fourth crown prince of the Derse Royal Family.” You mutter arms crossed tightly in front of your chest and eyes firmly on the stone floor. When you chance a glance up to see everyone’s reactions, you find Karkat overtly avoiding eye contact with you. Kanaya simply looks unsurprised.

His reaction hurts more than you care to admit, so you just focus your attention on anything else but him.

“And what about you two?” Kanaya asks, referring to Rose and John. Your blue-eyed best friend shares a significant look with your sibling, one you’re sure everyone in this room understands. _Can we trust them?_

Rose simply gives a faint nod before sitting up straighter. “Rose Lalonde, third crown princess of the Derse Royal Family and head of the Royal Archives. My companion is Johnathan Egbert of the Prospit Kingdom. You may simply address us as Rose and John, there’s no need for titles under these… Unique circumstances.”

Kanaya smiles gratefully at Rose. You can’t imagine the kind of pressure Kanaya must be feeling, having three royals in her hive, and human ones at that. The very race hers has been in tension for years. “And… What is this unique circumstance, if I may ask?” She inquires, her voice ever so diplomatic and polite. If things were different, you’d have placed your everything on a bet that she and Rose would get along famously.

Again, Rose and John look at each other. When they can’t seem to come to a silent agreement, they both look to you. With a sigh, you give both of them a tight nod of your head.

Rose brushes a stray hair away from her face. You know she’s nervous to talk about it with complete strangers, especially with the race who’s responsible for this whole shit show in the first place. But you know Kanaya and the actions of her bitchy Empress can’t be held against her entire race.

“I trust them.” You say, and Rose nods. But you find yourself holding Karkat’s gaze for a moment. Then, he turns away from you to focus on the topic being discussed. You swallow down the lump in your throat and force yourself to do the same.

“Our Kingdom’s been… Attacked.” Rose begins, and Kanaya and Karkat immediately look alert. “A few months ago, your Empress requested a peace meeting with us and we agreed, under the condition that she come to us, not the other way around. We were supposed to renew the terms for the continued peace treaties between the Human Kingdoms and the Troll Empire, just as Prospit had done earlier. But… As you can guess, things didn’t exactly go as planned and the peace meeting was never about peace. It was an ultimatum. Our eldest brother was not having it.

“When he refused all of the terms given by your Empress, she didn’t hesitate to go on the offensive.” Rose continues, and you can’t help but avert your eyes, knowing what comes next. “She… Attempted to turn him into a crow, one of our family’s sigils, to mock it. To mock him. But Dave pushed him out of the way and…” Even your sister pauses, meeting your gaze. She tells you everything she needs to with that single look before continuing. “Then she cursed our entire Kingdom. A sleeping curse. But before I fell to it, I managed to send a distress signal to our Propitian allies and John and his cousin came to our aid. But it took longer than anticipated, and by the time I was woken up, a month had already passed. My brother was missing, my Kingdom was in shambles, and I was left to pick up the pieces.”

Rose sighs, leaning back in her seat and rubbing circles around her temples. You’re only now noticing the toll she paid for everything that has happened. The dark circles around her eyes, the paleness of her skin. It twists the guilt in your gut worse than any knife.

“I went to find my brother with the help of John. Now that I’ve achieved that, I intend to work to undo the curse that witch put on our Kingdom and-…” She stops herself, seeming to remember where she is. You know what your family intends to do after all of this is said and done. There’s no sneaking around it.

What happened was the most direct way anyone could go about an act of hostile aggression.

It means war.

»»———— ☽ ————««

Kanaya and Karkat have retreated upstairs to give you and your companions some privacy. You suspect they’re also having their very own private discussion upstairs about what to do after the truth bomb your sister just dropped.

It makes you anxious more than anything else about your situation. It’s selfish and stupid because you’ve got more pressing matters to attend to, but you just want to be alone with Karkat and explain yourself. You want to pour your heart out to him and have him accept you anyway, but you know you can’t.

Not now. Maybe not ever.

You sigh, running a rough hand through your hair only to quickly pull it away when you nick your scalp with your sharp claws. The pain only fuels your frustration though, so you cross your arms tightly instead.

Rose stands up from her seat on the leather chair to sit beside you on the dining table. John told you that he needed some fresh air after the heavy discussion so he’s currently out of the house right now.

“Are you alright, Dave?” Your sister asks, folding her hands on her lap as she sits on the chair sideways to face you. You keep frowning, silent like a petulant child. But you eventually sigh and give up on it. You’re twenty-four with a cursed Kingdom that needs saving, you don’t have the luxury to throw a tantrum over your feelings.

“That’s my line.” You tell her, shifting your posture just a bit to face her too.

She smiles at you, and it brings you some comfort. “The transmutation spell shouldn’t have excluded your voice when it was cast. I’m guessing you found some way to at least break part of the spell. Mind regaling me of your quest to earn your voice back?” She inquires.

You smile, grateful to her at her obvious attempt at lightening up the devastatingly dreary mood. “I did shit all at breaking it. Most of the work was done by Kanaya and considering this is how I’m repaying her for being in her debt, I should have killed myself two hours ago for bringing shame to my honour.”

Rose looks pleasantly surprised by that. “Really? Kanaya is a… Magic-user?”

Seems like your sibling’s curiosity is piqued. And you know what happens when her curiosity is piqued. “You know that I know nothing about that magic mumbo-jumbo shit. Why don’t you ask her yourself?” You tell her, smirking when she rolls her eyes.

“Perhaps… But not right now.” She replies quietly, seemingly lost in thought for a moment. Then, her eyes snap into focus back on you, a sly smile on her face. Shit. “So… If you won’t tell me about Kanaya, mind telling me about Karkat then?”

You run a hand down your face. You knew it was going to happen eventually. She clearly saw you dancing to a slow song with him when she first arrived and no matter how uncharacteristically emotional she was at the time, there’s no way she’d forget a detail like that so easily.

“He’s… It’s complicated, okay? I’m… I’m not even sure what he thinks of me now, and there’s no chance I’ll be able to fix things with him at this point.” You sigh yet again, hating how heavy that fact sits inside your chest. Saying it out loud makes it real and you didn’t expect the ache you feel in your core. You want to hold him and be held by him again. A craving for touch so sharp it almost leaves you breathless.

Rose reaches out to put her hand over top yours, a sympathetic expression on her face. As understanding as she is about falling for someone in your situation, she also expects you to come with her to save your Kingdom.

As you should. But it’s not an easy choice for you. No matter which one you make, you’ll end up hurt. No matter how understanding she is, she still expects you to do the right thing.

That makes it very hard for you to look her in the eye at that moment. Her sympathy is cold comfort in the situation you’re in. But it’s not like you can blame her for being where you stand now.

Torn between responsibility and love.

You only have yourself to blame for this.

»»———— ☽ ————««

"You knew, didn't you?" His voice is barely above a whisper, but you can tell that he's boiling underneath the cool surface he presents.

You purse your lips, shifting in your seat on the footboard of your bed. He's stationed himself by your window, looking intensely out at the night sky. The two of you have sat here in silence for the last minute or so ever since you entered the room.

"No. At least, not this very specific situation…" You heave a sigh, lifting your head to stare at him. "But that's not what you're truly asking about, is it?"

He finally looks at you and you can see the conflicting emotions within him. Well, more like the complementary emotions within him. Hurt and anger.

"Just answer the fucking question, Kanaya." He says forcefully, before catching himself and running a hand through his hair in frustration.

"No. I did not know. Dave didn't tell me when I asked you to leave so the two of us could talk about the circumstances of his curse." You tell him flatly. "I did suspect something big was involved, but I never…" You find yourself trailing off, mind wandering a bit to what you just learned.

It seems you are on the brink of war. You don't know how to feel about that yet, but right now, you're more worried about Karkat.

"Jegus fucking christ, Kanaya. Why the hell didn't you fucking tell me then?!"

You cast your eyes down. The feeling of shame being dumped on your body is one you haven't felt since you first ran away. While your hand in keeping him in the dark is almost inconsequential, you still had a hand in it. You feel guilt in a way you've never felt before because he trusted you. He trusted you and you let him down.

"I… I have no excuse for what I did. I simply wanted you to be happy, even for a very brief while. I didn't think hiding this _one_ _small thing_ from you would cause this much harm."

“So you just expected us to have some sort of whirlwind romance and then a tearful goodbye to each other by the end and you’d be able to keep your secret until the end of your days with no fucking consequence at all?” His voice is lined with sarcasm when he says it, eyes narrowed. “I don’t give a shit about Dave hiding this from me. I can at least understand _why_ he had to hide who he really is. I already knew he was a raging dick head. But _you_ , Kanaya? Really?”

He doesn’t have to explain to you why this is a thing he’s taking issue with. Knowing his history, and knowing yours, he expected you to have his back when it came to getting involved in dangerous matters. Matters like the one you’ve inadvertently found yourselves in. If you ever had an inkling that there’s something more to the situation, he expected you to alert him right away.

He’s right, of course. But you also think he’s being ridiculous, holding onto his anger over something this small. No. You have a feeling there’s a second layer to this that he’s refusing to acknowledge because it’s easier for him to deal with.

“Karkat-” You stand up from your seat but he holds up a hand before you can get any closer. He can probably sense what you plan to do with your next move, and he doesn’t want your fussing and meddling. Why does he have to be so stubbornly thick-headed?

“Don’t. Alright? I’m going out, I need a walk to cool my head.” He tells you, making a beeline for your door and disappearing behind it, leaving you all alone.

»»———— ☽ ————««

So much has happened over the last few hours that you find yourself drifting away from the ground again. It’s not hard for you to do so, your relatives all think you’ve got your head in the clouds far too often. But those clouds aren’t always pleasant ones.

Perhaps it’s selfish of you to think of your best friend and wonder who the troll he was holding hands with is when the fate of the Kingdoms is in your hands. But you think you’re still valid in questioning it since it’s related to the situation at hand. The company he’s been keeping for the past few months, you’d say, is a pretty important detail to know more about. Especially why he’s stayed with them for this long instead of going out to find help like Rose initially believed when you first started following his trail.

These thoughts plague your mind and make you frown at their negativity. You were never one to dwell on thoughts like this. It was always more of Rose’s and Dirk’s thing. Sure, an occasionally concerning or worrisome thought may appear, but they’re never as plentiful as the ones you’re having now.

Then again, the last few weeks you’ve been travelling have been filled with dire and dour news all around. You guess it’s normal to end up being a pessimist in your current circumstance.

Even your horse, Richard the Seventh (also known as ‘Dick’ to Dave), seems to agree. You only realize then that he’s probably neighing because you’ve been brushing the same spot of his brown mane for a few minutes now.

With a sigh, you move to tuck the brush back into the satchel still slung over his back when the door of Kanaya’s house opens. “Dave-” You say instinctively, only to be met by one of the trolls instead.

“Do I even look remotely pale, skinny, and blonde to you at all? The fuck are those glasses for if you can’t even see shit in them?” He snaps, and you frown. Rude much?

“Geez, sorry. I was just… Expecting someone else to come through the door, that’s all.” You apologize before pausing for a moment. You look at the troll and smile sincerely. “Karkat was it? Um… Thank you for taking my idiot best friend in, I know he can’t have been very easy to deal with.”

The troll seems to hesitate for a moment before sighing and closing the door behind him. “He’s a royal pain in the ass, but I never expected him to _literally_ be that.” He says, and you think you can hear a hint of fondness there but it could just be your imagination. You wouldn’t be surprised if there was though. “You don’t have to thank me, taking him off our hands is payment enough.”

“Are you sure about that?” You find yourself asking, and he frowns at you. Well, more like grimaces. You shake your head and decide to just be upfront with it. “Can I… Ask who you are? To Dave I mean. You two seemed… Close.”

His grimace deepens. "... Why does it matter to you?" He answers, an edge to his tone. "You're not staying here for very long anyway, right? And he'll be coming along? Why the fuck does it matter to you or anyone else?"

You find yourself sighing again. He has a point there, so you just shrug, continuing to pet your horse's snout. "I was just curious, is all. Dave's never… I mean, I guess I never imagined seeing him with anyone else. He's always been aloof to everyone else. Being a royal doesn't allow him to form close relationships with people who aren’t. It’s just a fact about nobility. So it was always assumed by everyone that he'd end up with one of the Prospitian royals too, particularly either me or my cousin. Or maybe even one from the Troll Kingdom, if it came down to it." You shrug again, unsure what you're even talking about anymore or why you're telling him of all people. "I just… I don't think I've ever seen him as relaxed as he looked back at the festival."

When you glance up at him again, you find he's leaning against the door frame facing you, both arms and legs crossed. "What's he like as Derse's fourth crown prince?" He asks. Although he tries to mask his curiosity with an air of nonchalance, you can tell. You get the sense that he wears his heart on his sleeve, whether he wants to or not. There was a time when you were the same, but a trait like that is quite bothersome for someone of your station.

"He's almost as cold as his eldest brother." You reply, a smile tugging at the corners of your mouth. "But he's always been kind and fair to his people. He's popular with the commoners for a reason. Even if the Derse royals do tend to exude a certain sense of untouchability and distance from its people, more so than the Prospitian royals do, he and Roxy have always seemed like the more approachable pair compared to the other two siblings."

Karkat simply nods, listening intently. “Well… What about him without all his fancy-ass titles? As just… Dave?” He asks, hesitant. His features screw into a scowl as if he’s already regretting asking the question and would really rather not know the answer.

You shrug again, smiling at him. “I think you’ve seen him as his best self already.” You say and he looks surprised by your reply.

Then he rolls his eyes. “You mean snarky, insufferable, arrogant, talkative, and completely and utterly lacking in any form of intelligence or common sense?”

You find yourself laughing at his description of Dave. He seems startled by that too, before forcing his features back into what seems to be his default expression. Crabby.

“Are you in love with him?” He asks when you manage to control your laughter. You stare at him for a moment before looking up at the sky to give it some serious thought.

After considering your feelings for a while, you finally answer him honestly. “I thought I’d be more jealous than I feel right now.” You simply say with a shrug. “I care a lot about Dave, and I want him to be happy. I just always assumed that he’d be happiest with me or Jade, like most of the nobles around us led us to believe. Maybe I mistook it for romantic love until now. I’m still not sure though, but what I can say definitively is that I care about him and what happens to him. I wouldn’t be able to forgive anyone who hurt him.”

When you glance back at Karkat, you find his expression thoughtful and his gaze far away. Before either of you can continue your conversation though, the door opens again and this time, it’s the person you were expecting.

“John, Kanaya said you and-” Dave starts to say before abruptly stopping when he realizes Karkat is out here with you. The way his attention is so suddenly hyper-focused on him leaves you feeling a little disappointed.

But not as hurt as you expected yourself to be.

“What was that, Dave?” You ask, bringing his attention back to you. He clears his throat, focusing his gaze back on you.

“Uh- Kanaya said you and Rose can take her bed. She can stay over at Aradia’s for the night.” He tells you, black feathers ruffled. That’s a strange sentence you never thought you’d ever think of about your best friend. It’s still very strange to see Dave be half-bird with all the mannerisms of one. Kind of unnerving actually.

“Thanks.” You say before letting out a long yawn. Looks like you stayed out later than you intended. You move to head back in, pausing for a moment by the door to mouth, “good luck,” to your new acquaintance before disappearing back into the house.

»»———— ☽ ————««

For the first time in all your time of knowing him, Karkat looks flustered. When you glance behind you to look at John, you find that he’s already disappeared into Kanaya’s house. With a sigh, you focus your attention back on the troll in front of you.

He’s avoiding looking at you again and you can’t help but awkwardly focus your gaze on the ground as well. The air feels thicker than the discussion about impending war and doom earlier.

“Karkat, I-” You start but he cuts you off with a heavy sigh. Finally, he meets your eyes, and your stomach bottoms out once more. He looks exhausted and far older than you’ve ever seen him. You want to reach out to him, but the distance between you feels farther than it actually is.

“It’s late, Dave. Can we have this talk tomorrow?” He says, voice so soft and gentle, it breaks your heart. You swallow down the rest of the words on the tip of your tongue and just nod stiffly.

He walks around you to enter the house, and you can’t make yourself turn around to watch him go. He seems to hesitate for a moment after opening the door though, and barely audibly, you hear him say, “good night,” to you. When you force your head to turn to look at him, he’s already gone, the door left slightly ajar for you.

Why do your lungs feel so heavy inside your chest? It feels like it’s full of leaves and untamed shrubbery, making it hard for you to breathe.

The telltale sting of your eyes threatens you so you take deep calming breaths before finally entering back into the house. You close the door behind you and lock it before noticing John sitting by one of the leather chairs, seemingly awaiting your return.

You frown. “Where’s Rose and Kanaya?” You ask, and John shrugs.

“Rose insisted that Kanaya shouldn’t have to give up her bedroom for two strangers she has no obligation of helping any further than she already has. So to settle the issue, I said I’d be fine sleeping upright on one of the leather chairs down here and she and Kanaya can share her bed upstairs.” He explains.

An almost strangled laugh bubbles up from your dry throat, feeling the tears you’ve been fighting back so vigilantly finally spill. This whole night has just been completely fucking out of this world insane and you can’t believe John of all people managed to set your sister up with Kanaya.

Your blue-eyed friend seems concerned about your sudden tearing up, so you quickly wipe the offending liquid from your face and attempt to control your nigh hysterical laughter. “Are you okay?” He asks when you’ve calmed yourself down.

You smile at him, fully knowing they don’t reach your eyes and shake your head. He sighs heavily. “Goddamn it, that asshole.” He simply mutters and you can’t stop yourself from laughing, more genuinely this time.

You hop onto the arm of the leather chair opposite to him and make yourself comfortable as you perch. John looks at you with a bizarre expression and you flush, suddenly very self-conscious about your bird body. You keep forgetting how unnatural it is to other people that aren’t Kanaya or Karkat, or even the other village folk in this settlement.

He seems to pick up on this though and decides to quickly change the subject. “What’d he say?” John asks.

You shrug, averting your eyes. “He said he’d talk to me tomorrow.” You answer curtly.

John nods, seemingly satisfied with that answer. “That’s good.”

You glance back at him with a puzzled expression. “Why ask that question though? Are you two suddenly super close chums now? Did you guys bond over the course of a few minutes while the two of you were outside?” You ask, and he simply laughs light-heartedly at your incredulity.

“Something like that.” He replies cryptically.


	8. The Bird You Must Not Miss (part 1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rose and John begin planning a way to save Derse while under Kanaya's roof.
> 
> Will this get in the way of Dave and Karkat?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heads up, this chapter comes in two parts. I'm sorry in advance :")

┍━━━━━━━━━━━━━┑

_“Nine for a kiss_

_How did it come to this_

_Ten for a bird_

_You must not miss.”_

┕━━━━━━━━━━━━━┙

Sunlight kisses your eyelids awake, and for once in what feels like a long time, you feel refreshed and ready to tackle the day. This is quite important, considering you’ve got a lot on your agenda in the next coming weeks.

You’ve got so much planning to do, so much preparation to do, before you can proceed any further. But as you lay in the morning warmth, you find your attention pulled to another source of heat beside you.

Kanaya is still fast asleep on the other side of the bed, delicate features a painting under the sun’s golden rays. You can’t deny your surface-level attraction to the troll, but unlike your brother, you won’t let yourself be swayed by emotions under such dire times. Clever of John to pull the stunt he did last night, clever enough that you decided to indulge it.

But that’s as far this goes.

Without further thoughts on the matter, you push yourself up from the bed and stretch your arms high above your head. It’s been so long since you slept in a proper bed, you’ve almost forgotten how good it feels.

You feel energized and that’s a good sign for the day ahead. After stretching out your muscles, you stand up and gather yourself, smoothing out the creases in your washed out lavender seer outfit. You could’ve brought along a change of clothes for your journey, but you’re more comfortable wearing this to other travelling outfits. Besides, who needs a change of clothes when magic can do your cleaning for you?

When you turn to move around the bed, you notice that Kanaya seems to have awakened too, staring at you from her spot on the bed. When your eyes make contact, she seems to be somewhat flustered for being caught staring. “I’m sorry, did I wake you?” You say politely, withholding the witty comment that just popped into your mind.

The troll sits up from her bed, a natural fluidity to her movements. She seems immediately concerned with her hair before answering you. “No, it’s quite alright. I wake up around this hour anyway. How was your sleep though? I hope I wasn’t a bad bed partner and kept you up late into the night.”

You raise a brow. She’s making it too easy for you to make some sort of witty comment. “Don’t worry about me. Getting to sleep on a bed after all the travelling I’ve done in the past few weeks is luxury enough. Thank you for your seemingly unending hospitality, Kanaya.”

She smiles brightly at you, and you’re caught off guard by just how pretty she truly is. The candlelight does not do her features any justice. “It is no problem at all. I’d hate to be a testament to our ruler’s cruelty. This is the least I can do for you.”

You simply smile and give her a nod before moving to leave the bedroom as you intended. Kanaya stays behind, surely to make herself more presentable, but you continue on downstairs. You’re quite surprised to find everyone else already awake, having breakfast on the table. Faint scents of spices and herbs linger in the air.

“Good morning Rose! How was your night?” John is the first to greet you, although you don’t miss Dave’s little smirk. It seems they’re both in agreement in trying to set you up with your lovely host.

For once in your life, you’re not sorry to disappoint a crowd.

“I slept just fine, thank you very much.” You reply curtly as you take the seat beside Dave. John sits at the head of the table while Karkat seems to want to distance himself as much as possible from the two. He looks crankier than last night if that’s even possible. It’s easy to pick up on the fact that he’s not a morning troll.

“You didn’t kick Kanaya off her own bed during your sleep did you, Rose?” Dave presses, a glint of mischief in his eyes.

“I can’t believe you would even suggest that I have terrible manners, Dave.” You huff, taking a bowl from the ones already sitting out on the table and taking your share of the prepared food. “Only you and Roxy do that.”

“And I can’t fucking believe all of your abilities to hold a mind-numbingly inane conversation so early in the fucking morning without losing your pans.” Karkat chides, glaring at John in particular. Your blue-eyed companion holds onto his unending optimism though, something you haven’t seen from him in a while. It gives you a boost of confidence for your future endeavours.

“I’m not usually a morning person either, but being part bird has really thrown my body clock for a goddamn loop,” Dave says with a shrug. 

"What is it like being a bird anyway, Dave?" You ask, steering the conversation elsewhere that isn't about you and Kanaya. "You've been one for quite some time now. I'm sorry you've had to stay in this form for so long."

Dave and Karkat share a brief look but before your brother can give you a reply, Kanaya finally descends from upstairs. And again, John greets your gracious host amicably. “Morning Kanaya! How was your sleep?”

You shoot him a withering glare, thankful that the seat you're sitting in doesn’t allow Kanaya to see your expression. “Oh, I slept just fine, why do you ask?” You hear her respond from behind you as she takes a seat across from you and beside Karkat.

“Oh, nothing. I would just hate it if we’ve disturbed you any further in your own home. We promise we won’t stay an inconvenience for very long.” John replies smoothly, smiling through his food.

Kanaya waves a dismissive hand. “Please, I told Rose the same thing this morning. You are not a bother at all, it’s the least I could do after the hell our Empress put you through.”

You perk up a bit at that, instinctively looking out the windows and doors to check for eavesdroppers before you ask your question. “I take it… You’re not a very big fan of her, then?” You murmur, making sure your voice is just loud enough for the others to still hear it.

The jade blood and her fellow troll share a significant look. “Something like that.” She says after a moment, voice polite but clearly disinterested in continuing this line of conversation. You don’t blame her, she technically just admitted to a traitorous thought about the leader of her race.

The rest of the morning goes on uneventfully enough. The group of you make small talk here and there, but by the time everyone’s finished, you’ve made your intentions for the day known.

“We need to resupply our stock for our journey ahead. Kanaya, you think you can show me around the village to pick some stuff with John?” You request, ignoring the alerted look on your brother’s face at your clear exclusion of him and Karkat.

Kanaya easily picks up on what you’re putting down. “Sure, I’d be delighted to show you around our humble settlement.”

“Wait-” Both Dave and Karkat protest at the same time, effectively cutting each other off at their own unexpected syncing. You quickly stand up from the table and so does John and Kanaya.

“Karkat, can I trust you to take care of the hive while we’re out?” She asks kindly enough while you and your companion get your things ready. You watch their exchange from the corner of your eye. The troll seems agitated at this sudden turn of events. “I promise we won’t be gone for long,” Kanaya assures him.

After a beat or two more of glaring at the jade, Karkat finally caves and heaves a sigh. “Fine. Whatever.” He says curtly, standing up to collect the dishes presumably to clean them.

Once that’s done and you’ve made sure you have everything you need in your shoulder satchel, Kanaya joins you by the door. John is already outside, waiting for the two of you.

You open the door for her. “Shall we, then?”

»»———— ☽ ————««

The village is charmingly rustic. Although you have a feeling any other person would beg to differ, you’ve always been different in terms of your interests. Even your eldest brother has told you that you’ve got strange and eclectic tastes. To which you’ve always countered that he shouldn’t be one to judge considering his obsession with a certain plush he has in excess.

You’ve always found macabre beauty in decaying things, a trait you seem to share with your youngest brother. You prefer more occult things because you want to understand what lies beyond the norm. Dave, on the other hand, simply collects strange, dead things he finds worth in because he thinks they look aesthetically pleasing.

It’s a trait only the two of you share. Roxy hates thinking too hard about death and inevitability, preferring to live in the moment as much as possible. Dirk is more open to philosophizing with you and isn’t afraid to stare death in the face, but even he doesn’t like things that are objectively grotesque like dead bodies or strange occult rituals.

You doubt neither will find anything worth in an almost rundown and simplistic troll village like this. The streets are not paved with wild flora sprouting through the dry dirt, the structures and buildings look like they're in poor maintenance, and the inhabitants look like all they’ve done in their entire lives is toil. Which you’re sure they have.

But they still find it in themselves to greet each other warmly and find happiness in the smallest of things.

It’s charmingly rustic and small, with absolutely nothing worth noting or remembering. It’s a good place to lay low and stew in the utterly ordinary, something you find comforting right now.

"How long have you lived here?" You find yourself asking. John had written up a list of things you needed stocking early this morning and split it in half, giving most of it to you so you and Kanaya can go retrieve it. Meanwhile, he said he'd go alone and retrieve the other small half, so that way you can get all you need faster. Divide and conquer and all of that.

Kanaya isn't dumb, and John isn't exactly subtle about it either. But with no other option and the plan John proposed being a sound one, it was what you decided to do when you left her house.

"Approximately four sweeps ago. I'm the only seamstress in the village, so I stayed mostly out of the village’s necessity when the previous one died of natural causes.” She replies easily as she leads the way to the village market.

“You’re a seamstress?” You ask, a bit surprised. You suppose you did see that sewing kit in her living room and the small rack of bolts of fabrics, but somehow you didn’t make the connection last night. To your defence, you were very tired then and you wouldn’t usually miss a big detail like that. “A magician and a dressmaker. Not the set of skills I would first think of as complementary to each other, but impressive nonetheless.”

“ _Healer_.” The jade corrects and you glance at her. “I don’t perform magic in the same way you would imagine with that term so I don’t like categorizing myself as one.” She clarifies.

You quirk an eyebrow at that. “May I ask what exactly it is you do then?” You inquire. “You did manage to undo part of the spell your _Empress_ cast on my brother. That is no small feat for a mere healer like _you_ .” You lean over to whisper to her, careful not to raise your voice while out in public like this. But you can’t deny, the exquisite danger of doing so is… _Thrilling_.

It seems well worth too when you see a hint of a blush creep up on your host’s face. To her credit, she easily composes herself and answers you without even glancing your way. “Fine. I’m a sylph, classically trained at one point. I know a bit more about the type of… Magic cast on Dave.”

You let yourself smile a little, a little laugh escaping your lips. Kanaya finally looks at you with an expression of apprehension on her face. “What?” She asks, almost indignantly.

You shake your head, examining her for a moment. Kanaya is certainly an interesting character case. A disguised jade, taking the appearance of a simple olive seamstress with an above-average talent for healing, magic, and potion-making. Not to mention her clear dislike for her own race’s ruler, an opinion she tastefully keeps under wraps. She’s far from being a simple villager like the rest of her neighbours are. And you can’t deny that the personal secrets she keeps close to her chest aren’t intriguing to you at all.

“Nothing.” You tell her then, a smile creeping into your features. You turn your attention away from the jade because your staring seems to be unnerving her. “Anyway. If you don’t mind me asking… What do you make of my brother?”

You see the seamstress keep her eyes on you from the corner of your vision, a wary expression on her delicate face. “That depends. What exactly do you mean by the question?”

“Just your thoughts on him in general. What you think of him now that you know who he is.” You say with a shrug, before pausing and glancing furtively in her direction. “And his… Relationships. With you and Karkat.”

Kanaya raises a brow at you, amusement twinkling in the corners of her lips. She was expecting this, it seems. And you fell for it. “My opinion on him hasn’t changed simply because he’s a prince now. Irresponsible with questionable priorities, sure, but how I view him hasn’t changed. He’s still Dave, is he not?” She answers and you find yourself smiling at that. It puts your suspicions about the trolls a little bit more at ease. “Karkat is a whole different conversation though.”

It’s your turn to raise your brow up at that. “And why is that?”

Kanaya gives you yet another cautiously glance before shrugging her shoulders lightly. “Their business is their own.” She states, but it sounds like she’s trying to convince herself, not you. “Whatever is going on with them… I assure you, after everything that’s happened, it won’t cause further complications.”

Somehow, you doubt that. From your very brief interaction with Dave last night, it’s clear to you that the mutant is reason enough to cloud his judgement. You want to sympathize because he’s your brother and forming an infatuation in his circumstance is… Unfortunate. But you’ve also got bigger things to worry about. 

With a sigh, you pull your attention to the sprawling plaza you’ve entered, the same one where the festival was happening last night. “It seems we’ve arrived.”

You move forward ahead of your guide and pull your list from your satchel. The prickling sensation in the back of your neck, the telltale sign of someone staring intently at you, makes itself known. You don’t even have to turn your head to know whose gaze you’ve caught.

For better or for worse, you’ve intrigued Kanaya as much as she has intrigued you.

»»———— ☽ ————««

You simultaneously thank and curse your sister at the same time.

On one hand, you’re thankful for her guile at setting up a situation where you can be alone with Karkat privately. On the other hand, you don’t think you’re ready to have this talk with him this early in the morning no matter how much you’ve stayed up last night with thoughts of how this interaction could go.

The fact that he hasn’t acknowledged your existence in any capacity since this morning doesn’t help ease your nerves either. Although him waking up far earlier than you’re used to after living here for quite some time now makes you wonder. 

It makes you wonder if he was as sleepless as you, thinking of the same things as you, and eager to get it over with, just like you.

You wish. You doubt that he cares enough for meaningless shit like this for it to be the one dominating his thoughts of worry. The more likely reason behind why he would stay up is the shitty situation you’ve knowingly dragged him into because you were selfish and put your feelings first.

The memory of last night is forcefully brought to the forefront by your mind. You wonder if he was angry with you when he found out. You wonder if he’s still angry with you now. You’ve never seen this type of quiet temper from him because he usually likes making it known when he’s pissed about something.

This silent treatment he’s giving you now is so much worse compared to that.

With a sigh, you decide you’re going nowhere just quietly wondering things about him. Rose gave you this opportunity and while it’s very you to squander it, you can’t let that happen. Because you don’t know when you’ll have another one like this, or if you’ll ever even get a 'next time.' “Karkat-”

“Unless the next sentence you’re about to say has the words ‘I’m sorry, I was a massive prick’ included in it, in that order, I won’t dignify whatever bullshit comes out of your mouth with a response until I’m done the hive chores.” He says, tone hard and rough with the same ornery demeanour you’ve come to find very endearing.

You don’t even have to think about it. “I’m sorry. I was a massive, obnoxious, selfish prick.”

There’s a pause in the clinking of glasses and the clanging of wooden utensils after you say it without any hesitation. Then he resumes his work and your heart sinks for only a moment until Karkat finally faces you, leaning back on the kitchen counter with his arms crossed over his chest.

“You want to explain yourself, right?” He asks, but it’s clear he meant it rhetorically. “Start talking then. That’s all you seem to be good at anyway. At least, until something actually fucking matters.”

Ouch. That hurt. You can’t say you didn’t deserve it though. 

“I’m sorry for not telling you who I am, but in my defence, would you have allowed me to stay if you knew?” You say with a sigh, shaking your head. “Maybe I should’ve told you sooner, like before you decided to help me further by taking me to the village and meeting Kanaya. Maybe I should have let Kanaya tell you what she suspected instead of asking her to hide it for me. For all of that, I’m really fucking sorry and I don’t have any excuses. And I get it if you can’t forgive me, I get it if you feel like I betrayed your trust, and I get it if you don’t want to see my stupid mug ever again after this. I just… I wanted to at least apologize for all of the stupid shit I’ve done. Fucking up is all I seem to know to do so… I’m sorry I involved you in all of my stupid bullshit without even letting you know about it.”

A long silence stretches between the two of you, but you keep your eyes glued to the floor beneath you. You still haven’t moved from your spot on the dining table even after everyone else left.

Then, quietly, gently, he asks, “why?”

You meet his gaze for a moment. He’s still got that classic frown on him, thick brows furrowed angrily and lips pursed in a thin line. But with the way the light comes in from the window behind him and bathes him in shadow, you can’t help but feel a sense of intimidation in his posture. It makes your heart skip a beat, your breath getting caught in your dry throat.

You look away again, turning your eyes back down to the floor. It’s so hard to look at him when he looks at you like that.

“You know why.” You mumble, shifting to fix your feathers just so your restless muscles have something to do.

“Do I?” He asks again, without any hesitation. You let another long pause hang in the air before furtively glancing up.

Karkat is still intently staring at you, but the smirk playing on his lips is unmistakable. It makes your face burn. He's fucking with you. He’s fucking with you and your feelings and it isn’t fucking fair. “Yes you do, you dumb fuck. Don’t make me say it. We’ll just both end up regretting it.” You retort, rolling your eyes. You hate him. You hate his stupidly charming face. You hate his stupid fucking jawline, you hate his lips that you want to kiss so badly, and you the fact that what makes you want to try is how he’s an inch taller than you. You hate everything about him.

You hate him so passionately that you ended up falling in love with him.

“Wouldn’t be the first time you did something like that.” He simply snorts in reply before moving on to go about his daily tasks. Still, you think that conversation went a lot better than you expected.

He didn’t say he’s forgiven you. But he didn’t exactly shun you either, and that’s enough for you. The feeling he leaves you with is enough to last you the rest of your life if you don’t ever get to see him again.

The feeling of falling only to take flight. The feeling of the wind whipping through your hair as you soar through the winds. The feeling of being so high up you’re practically above the clouds.

Yeah. That feeling could last you a lifetime even when you eventually turn back to a normal, boring, human.

»»———— ☽ ————««

By the late afternoon, you’ve picked up everything you needed. The shopping spree could’ve gone faster in your opinion, but it was made more difficult by the villagers who kept giving you suspicious looks. They seemed reluctant to help you in even the most minimal things, like directing you to the right place for the more specific things you needed.

They clearly don’t trust you at all and would rather not associate with you at all, but with Kanaya by your side, it eased things a bit more. You can’t say the same for your travelling companion though. You had to find John once you were done and even though his list was shorter, his lack of a troll partner hindered his efforts far more than yours.

In the end, you’ve gathered everything you needed from the marketplace and you’re content with that. You won’t be staying in this place for much longer anyway, so they have nothing to worry about.

“What exactly is our game plan here?” John asks from his spot on the leather chair. The task of the day seemed to have sucked the literal life out of him and you feel bad. But not too much, since splitting up was his idea in his unsubtle attempt at pushing you and Kanaya together.

You’ve all gathered around Kanaya’s living room once again, having asked your brother to help you with checking the inventory for your upcoming adventure. Karkat and Kanaya offered their aid when John whined about having done his share of work for the day. Well, Kanaya offered and she cajoled her fellow troll into helping.

“Well, preferably, I’d like to go to the nearest township to pick up a crystal ball to contact Jake of our destination back to your Kingdom, John.” You answer with a sigh, closing another satchel after confirming that everything that’s supposed to be in there is, in fact, in there. John groans expressively.

“Why can’t we just head straight for Prospit?” Dave asks, pausing from his task of counting apples inside the bag he has in front of him on the dining table.

You frown, feeling that strange twisting in your gut. Something tells you that not confirming with Jake first is a terrible idea. You know to trust your gut instincts by now. “Just trust me on this, alright? I… Have a feeling. Once we confirm with Jake about our arrival back to Prospit, we can talk about our plans going forward.”

“If it’s a crystal ball you need, I don’t think you need to travel to the nearest township to buy one. I doubt the trolls there would take any kindly to you than the ones here.” Kanaya interjects, handing you another bag she’s just checked. “My neighbour, Aradia, has one. Although she only uses it to accurately tell time.”

You raise a brow at that. The jade blood only shrugs though.

With a sigh, you nod your head and stand up. “Alright, I suppose that will have to do. Kanaya, with me?” You request, but you don’t stop for her as you head for the door.

She’s right behind you by the time you’re at the door though. You smile a little at her and she returns the gesture as the two of you head out.

The house of Aradia Megido, the shepherd, is a quaint one. It’s the last one on Kanaya’s block, with a big corral on one side containing a bountiful amount of healthy-looking sheep. It’s in the same state as most of the other houses here, but it at least looks tidier, much like Kanaya’s.

The jade blood takes it upon herself to knock on the door when you near the property. Not a moment later, a curvaceous troll about Kanaya’s height, opens the door with a friendly red smile on her face. Her long hair reaches almost below her waist, a tangled mess of knots and curls. It oddly fits her cheery features well.

“Kanaya! And the human Dersite!” She greets happily, her welcoming demeanour very much different from the other trolls of her village. You’re caught a little off guard for a moment. “Please, come in, come in.”

The rust opens her door wider and ushers the two of you inside. “Thank you for letting us in, Aradia. While your ever-friendly attitude is most welcome in this situation, I would’ve expected a bit more questions on behalf of who I’ve brought along.” Kanaya says, looking skeptically at your host.

Aradia simply waves a dismissive hand at her comment though. “Any friend of Kanaya’s is a friend of mine. How bad can you humans be if Kanaya’s welcomed you into her own home?” She answers. She’s got a point, but you do find her trusting nature a little too naive. For all she knows, you could’ve been holding Kanaya hostage and forcing her to let you stay in her home.

“Would you really, though?” Aradia pipes up, looking past Kanaya and straight at you. The way she addresses you feels a little uncanny, considering what you were just thinking. But before you can question it, the rust blood bulldozes right past what she just said. “So, mind if I ask what brings the two of you here?”

Kanaya shoots you a look and you give her a nod. “Do you still have your crystal ball, Aradia?” She asks while you make yourself comfortable on a leather couch. The house is a wide-open space with lots of windows to let in the warm natural light of the sun. The decor isn’t half bad either if a bit eccentric and slightly morbid with the animal skulls littered tastefully around the room. You think Dave would appreciate the style.

“Of course, I don’t get rid of anything that could still be useful. Hold on, let me see if I can find it…” She replies, moving about in her living space and throwing things haphazardly in her search. Her unorthodox sense of style seems to go beyond just her taste in decor.

“Where’s Sollux, by the way?” Kanaya asks to fill the void while Aradia rummages around old cabinets and looks under furniture. The jade takes a seat beside you on the two-seater couch, gracefully smoothing down her dress and folding her hands on top of her lap.

“Oh, He’s out right now. I think he said something about needing some tools from Equius? I’ve been nagging him to fix the broken pipe that filters rainwater to the sheep and he’s finally getting around to doing it for me.” She answers, throwing a dusty blanket away from a crate of boxes near her kitchen. The plume of dust flies right towards you and Kanaya, making both of you cough and teary-eyed from the sudden assault of dirt particles. “Found it!” She announces, tone victorious.

You immediately stand up from your seat to kneel beside the crate she’s carried away from the others. Carefully, she pulls the top lid of the box from its spot and moves various animal furs and old clothes aside before a cloudy glass sphere is revealed.

With ginger fingers, she extracts it from the nest of fabrics and holds it out for you to see. In the light of day, you can vividly see the muddy clouds inside shift and slowly dissipate before becoming as clear as a silver mirror. Your appearance inside it distorts as Aradia hands it to you.

“Will this work for you?” She asks and you smile faintly.

“This will work just fine.”

»»———— ☽ ————««

Everyone gathers around you by the dining table once you’ve set up the crystal ball to stand steadily on a slanted stand that’s meant for holding spherical objects. Kanaya lent it to you from her alchemy set as she uses it to hold her more spherical containers.

They stare expectantly behind you, with Dave and John leaning uncomfortably close over your shoulders. You shrug both of them off. “Can I please have some space here?”

Both of them comply and back away just far enough to give you ample room to do what you need to. You stare deep into the silver sphere until you no longer see your reflection as it’s metallic appearance seems to shift from the inside. With both hands poised symmetrically on either side of the crystal ball, you slowly move your hands in a circular motion, much like how a planet revolves around the sun.

You feel the prickling sensation grow on the back of your neck until it feels like a cool winter breeze is passing through the entire room. The crystal ball grows cloudy once more, only the clouds look stormy with flashes of light within. You continue to stare within its depths, feeling the magic stare back at you and encompass your entire peripheral vision.

As more and more light begins to fill the crystal, you focus your mind on who you wish to contact. Only when the crystal turns into a white light source do you stop all your motions, bringing your hands back to its original position. “Contact.” You order, and after a moment more of waiting for your call to be picked up, the waist up appearance of a man manifests like a spectre above the crystal ball.

The cold air in the room seems to leave altogether and the warm humidity of the afternoon returns. You feel a little woozy after making such a long-distance call, but you recover easily enough. “What ho, Rose! And John! And Dave!! You’ve found Dave! By gods, you’ve done it!” Jake’s voice fills the room with pure delight that it makes you smile.

Your brother waves awkwardly to Prospit’s second crown prince. “And he’s a... Foul? I mean- a bird? Hoo boy, it appears to be you and John and Jade really went on an adventure, huh?” Jake continues to comment before his face takes on a more confused expression. It looks like he just noticed the other company you’re currently keeping in the room.

“We don’t have much time to get into the whole story right now.” You quickly interject before he can start asking more questions. “Jake, we’re headed for your Kingdom early next morning. I contacted you to give you a heads up for our arrival. Is Jane with you right now?”

At the mention of his cousin, his face falls. You frown, feeling sudden dread grip your body. “I truly hoped you would make contact with me because I don’t know what to do of this predicament myself. Jane’s no longer here, Rose.” He tells you, expression crestfallen. Your heart hammers inside your ribcage, adrenaline rushing through your veins.

“What do you mean?” John asks, his voice on the edge of panic. “Where is she, Jake? Where’s my sister?”

“The arranged marriage, John. With Alternia? The one we made months ago to ensure the peace between the Kingdoms? A troll envoy arrived two weeks ago for Jane to be married off in the Troll Empire’s Capital. I could not say no. You know I could not. Not without- I couldn’t. I couldn’t protect her, I’m so sorry.” Jake explains, voice filled with regret and anguish. But it’s getting harder for you to focus on what he’s saying as a loud buzzing noise inside your ears grows.

This was her plan all along. 

Visiting Prospit first, even though Derse is closer. The arranged marriage with Jane, knowing that Prospit is more open to enduring whatever it took to continue the peace. The blatant aggression just because Dirk had disagreed. She _knew_ he would, she was counting on it.

She _knew_ , and she played you. 

Your heart thunders in your ears to the same beat of the buzzing in your head.

She knew. How could you not have seen it coming? Were you so blinded with hope to think she wouldn’t stoop this low in an attempt to take over using such a backhanded scheme?

She wanted to take over the Human Kingdoms with minimal effort. She’s already strong-armed Prospit into a signed marriage contract, one she knew they couldn’t retract without officially waging war with the Troll Empire. She knew Derse would not stand for an agreement like that. That’s why she personally came to your Kingdom when she could’ve easily sent for a troll diplomatic envoy to sort the legal shit for her.

She knew two against one isn’t a war she’s likely to win, even with how prosperous her Empire’s become ever since she ascended the throne. That’s why she cast the sleeping curse- to get you out of the way without having to waste any of her troops in a war with you. This puts her in a very advantageous position, even if Prospit revolts now.

It’s too late.

_You’re too late._


	9. The Bird You Must Not Miss (part 2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the shock of Jake's revelation, the humans re-evaluate their plans. Soon, it's time to say good-bye.
> 
> Meanwhile, in the Alternian Empire, the Condesce receives a surprise guest...

When your sibling suddenly faints amidst the chaos of your heavy interrogation of Jake, you’re surprised to find that the first to her side is Kanaya. Well, maybe you’re not completely surprised.

You rush over to take the other empty spot beside Rose as the jade cradles her in her arms. “Rose! Oh god, is she okay?” You ask just as Kanaya is checking all of her vitals.

After a moment of tense silence, Kanaya breathes out a breath of relief. “She’s fine, she’s still breathing. Her skin is very hot to the touch though, it seems she’s running a high fever. The news and the summoning of the crystal ball may have pushed her body to its absolute limits, therefore leading to her fainting.” She surmises, easily hooking her hand under Rose’s knees and standing up with her in Kanaya’s arms. “I’ll take her upstairs to my bed chambers and prepare some medicine for her. I’ll let you all know when she’s awake.”

You stand up in unison with the troll, giving a grave nod of your head. “Alright. Thank you for taking care of her, Kanaya.” You say and Kanaya simply gives you a faint smile before disappearing upstairs with your sister.

When you glance back at the crystal ball, Jake’s ghostly visage is gone. The connection must have cut out as soon as Rose lost consciousness.

John plops himself heavily on one of the leather seats, hands covering his face with his arms leaning against the armrest. He looks far more aged than you’ve ever seen him. He’s obviously troubled by his sister’s predicament, and you can’t blame him. You don’t know what you would do in his position if Rose was abducted by an evil Empire to be married off.

The air feels suffocatingly heavy after the grim news Jake delivered to you just now. “I think I need to go for a walk.” You absent-mindedly announce, making a beeline for the door.

The sun is setting on the horizon, the vicious red of the sky looking brighter than usual. You close the door behind you and start walking, head hanging as you do. So many thoughts swirl inside your mind, like a raging tempest you can’t make any sense of.

You don't know where you're going either, you just know you want to be on your own. So you let your feet take you wherever it will with each step you take.

Before you get too far though, you’re surprised to find someone has followed you out.

Karkat catches up to you, hands in his pants pocket, all faux casual. “Where are you off to?” He asks.

You simply give him a shrug before continuing to walk. He matches your pace, quietly walking beside you. Somehow, the company feels comforting as you stroll through the street before eventually leaving the village altogether.

Everything is pleasantly quiet in the late afternoon glow, with only the distant music of nature and the sound of your footsteps making noise around you.

“You humans sure are fragile,” The troll beside you comments after a while. “Your race’s skin is painfully soft and you get sick easily if you exhaust yourself one too many times.”

You glance over at him skeptically. “Is that supposed to be an attempt to make me feel better?” You question.

"Yet, despite everything, your race has survived this long. If I believed in anything remotely religious, I don't think it'd be hard for me to say that your survival alongside my race is miraculous. Against all odds, you’re still here." He simply continues, meeting your gaze. "She'll be fine." He concludes, giving you a look meant to get his point across.

You feel a little embarrassed because you didn't let him finish. His statement does alleviate your current worries about your sibling and leaves a warm feeling in your chest because _he’s_ the one to comfort you.

Despite your current circumstances, you can’t help but give Karkat a sincere smile. “Thank you.” You tell him. Your smile only broadens when you see the effects of it on him, no matter how hard he tries to hide it with his scowl and forced nonchalant manner.

“I’m not a complete asshole.” He says, a bite to his tone. You chuckle, shaking your head.

“Not all the time anyway.” You reply, grinning at him when he glares at you. 

The two of you continue to walk in silence after that. But this time, your heart feels a little lighter than when you first stepped out. His steady presence beside you helps a lot more than you’re willing to admit out loud.

After a while, he eventually speaks up again. “Rose… What’s she like?” The question is unexpected and when you look over at Karkat, you find him staring straight ahead into the forest with a thoughtful expression.

“She’s strong-willed. As stubborn as any of our other siblings, and when she sets her mind on something, there’s little you can do to dissuade her. Very much like my brother to that end. I wouldn’t even be surprised if she somehow became immortal through sheer force of will, fueled purely by spite to outlive death itself.” You jest a bit, smiling at the thought. Yeah, you doubt a simple fever can bring your sister down. “Unless you’re actually asking about her compatibility with Kanaya.” You add as an afterthought.

His frown deepens at your last comment. “That’s not what I meant.” He tells you bluntly, voice clipped. “It’s just…”

“It’s just what?” You press, raising a brow at him despite his unwillingness to look at you.

With a sigh, Karkat just shrugs. “Fine. Fine! Is that what you wanted to hear, Strider? That I actually give a shit about my friends' well-being and want the best for them?”

You stare a little wide-eyed at him after that and when you don’t give him an answer, he finally looks at you. “What?!” He demands, tone a touch incredulous.

You force yourself to shake away the feeling and shrug, averting your eyes. “Nothing I just- it feels weird to hear you address me by my last name, is all. I wasn’t expecting it.” You answer, feeling the need to awkwardly run your fingers through your neck plume just to have your fingers do something.

You can feel his eyes on you. “Sorry. Um, it just sort of slipped my mind so… If you’d rather be called by your actual name, I can, uh, do that.”

The unusual earnestness in his voice makes you laugh. Karkat glares daggers at you for it. “Sorry, I’m- I’m not laughing at you or anything it’s just- it feels kind of, uh, informal? To suddenly call me by my last name because people don't _just_ call me Strider, it's usually my full name and title and- oh god, I don’t even know what I’m saying anymore. Just, it feels weird to hear it from you. Like, because you’ve always called me by my first name for so long now and we’ve gotten- uh,- I don’t know. Nevermind, forget I even opened my mouth.” You ramble, awkwardly gesticulating with your hands before stopping altogether because it’s only making you look stupider. 

Karkat sighs exasperatedly at you. “Just shut the fuck up, Dave. You’ve ruined the rare perfectly articulate conversation we were just having, so just shut the fuck up already.” He tells you, and when you glance at him from the corner of your eyes, you find him smirking. “Before I do something completely stupid about it.”

Ugh.

Ever since the festival, he’s been having way too much fun fucking around with your feelings. It’s unfair. It’s unfair and you hate everything.

“Okay.” You manage to mutter amidst your embarrassment.

»»———— ☽ ————««

By the time you awake, you find yourself staring up at an unfamiliar ceiling, with wooden beams set neatly perpendicular to each other.

The first thing you take note of is how heavy your body feels. Your limbs feel as if it’s been tied down with weights and you’re far too exhausted to even attempt lifting them. The second thing you take note of is your temperature. The rest of your body feels like it’s just been to a hot bath, and you feel uncomfortably warm and sweaty. The coolness on your forehead sticks out because of this. After taking into account all of this, you can easily deduce what’s happened.

You’re fucking sick. With a high-grade fever, if your intuition is correct. Which it almost always is, though it’s always good to leave room for error to avoid hubris.

You force your head to turn just enough to look at anything other than the drab ceiling above you. Kanaya’s statuesque figure comes into view as she stands by her writing desk, with her back to you. “Ahem.” You say to catch her attention, which works almost immediately.

Within moments, she’s by the side of her bed, a worried gleam behind her put together demeanour. “How are you feeling?” She asks, taking the wet cloth from your forehead and dropping it into a water basin on a cabinet beside you.

When you attempt to speak, you find your throat painfully dry and wince a bit. But you push through it. “Fine enough. What happened?”

Kanaya notices the hoarseness of your voice and hands you a glass of water. You force yourself to sit up enough to take a sip, thankful for the refreshing relief it gives you. “You fainted after Jake gave the news. It was quite a shock and everyone’s been worried about you.”

You sigh loudly when you let yourself fall back onto the bed with a quiet ‘thump’. “So the news wasn’t just a hallucination of my fevered state, was it?” You say sardonically. “A shame.”

“... No, it was not.” Kanaya agrees. She takes the cloth from the water basin and wrings out the water it’s soaked in until it’s just damp enough to put back on your forehead without bringing much discomfort. You involuntarily shudder at its coldness against your very warm skin.

The troll leaves your side for a moment only to come back a second later with a tall cylindrical vial in her hand. The liquid inside is highly viscous, the colour of blush pink. Under the faint candle lights that light up the room, it almost seems to sparkle.

She carefully uncorks it and takes a spoon to pour it into. “I made some medicine to combat your fever. It should help you regain your energy back after a good night’s rest.”

You simply nod weakly and prop yourself up on your elbows again to receive the medicine. Kanaya gingerly uses her free hand to angle your chin the right way for you to drink the liquid from the spoon easier. Her cool hand on your skin is a comforting feeling you let yourself relish in for a few brief seconds.

The medicine is strangely sweet, with an almost floral undertone. But once you’ve swallowed everything down, it leaves a very bitter aftertaste. Kanaya senses your discomfort and hands you the glass of water again to wash the rest of the taste.

Once you’ve taken in the medicine, she pulls away and you damn the thoughts of your delirious mind that almost asks her to keep her hand where it is. You let yourself sink back into bed, pulling the blanket to cover you from the shoulders down.

“Is there anything else you need?” The jade queries, lingering by your bedside. You can’t help but glance up at her. The kindness that softens the edges of her sharp eyes makes you hesitate.

“You’ve been a caretaker of grubs in the Alternian caverns, correct?” You ask, and the surprise in her expression is evident.

She thinks about her reply longer than it probably should’ve to answer your question. “... Yes. Why?”

You can’t tell if it’s your fever inducing the blood that rushes to your face at the request that stumbles from your mouth. It’s probably for the best if you never knew. “Can you tell me a story? To fall asleep?”

Kanaya is caught off guard by your strange request, but before you can take your words back, her expression morphs into one of soft happiness. She pulls the chair from her writing desk and sits beside the bed.

You don’t have it in you to retract your request as she starts a tale about two girls who trade places and find a new friend in each other through it. One of common blood, and one of noble birth. Her soothing silky voice lulls you to sleep and all you can do is give yourself up to the repose as you close your eyes.

»»———— ☽ ————««

The next morning comes too early for your taste.

While you’re happy for Rose’s quick recovery after a full night’s sleep, you also despise the impending goodbye you know is on the horizon for you.

The whole morning has been a flurry of strategizing after breakfast. Rose wasted no time in preparing all sorts of maps and parchment papers to write in on the dining table once all the dishes have been cleared.

Karkat and Kanaya have mostly tried to stay out of your way, going about their daily chores while acting like they don’t hear all the planning about overthrowing their Empress happening right in the living room. Rose is even more intent in finding a way past the newest obstacle that’s presented itself after yesterday’s news.

While you’re just as invested in succeeding as her, you can’t help but feel bitter at the cold logical nature she’s taken. Even John looks careworn and reluctant, but he perseveres and participates nonetheless. Taking back his sister is a matter that relates closely to him.

Looking at them pouring over maps and discussing strategies on how to move forward, you can’t help but feel like… An outsider to what’s happening at the moment.

It’s a heavy feeling in the pit of your stomach, and it weighs you down the more you think about it. It’s a mixture of guilt and resentment and discomfort that burns up your energy reserves and leaves you wanting to hide away under the safety of bed covers.

You hate it, but you also don’t know what the hell to remedy it.

You feel like you’re the most reluctant to go through with this and… And you hate yourself for it. With a burning passion.

The only thing you can think to do is take a break to give yourself some breathing room. Everything is happening far too fast but also far too slow at the same time.

So that’s what you do.

You excuse yourself from the discussions. While Rose allows it, you also don’t miss the worried expression on her face as you leave the house. What you hate about her worry is it’s most certainly not about how you’re feeling. It’s worry that your resolve in this isn’t as solid as hers and she worries she’ll have to try and convince you to go through it anyway. For your Kingdom. For your siblings. For her.

She’s right, of course. You know she is. That doesn’t mean you can’t hate her for being right.

The air outside is crisp and refreshing. You breathe it in deeply to help calm your frayed nerves and sit on the bench outside, simply letting your mind wander on literally anything else that doesn’t involve the things that are currently plaguing your mind.

You close your eyes, but all the images that flood your mind are moments from the past. Of your time here, with the trolls, and… You just want to be with Karkat.

When you open your eyes again with a shuddering breath, you’re surprised when you realize someone has claimed the spot beside you. And more importantly, that it’s the troll you were just thinking about.

He glances at you when you’ve been unconsciously staring at him for a while and simply sighs. Then he holds out his hand to you.

You stare at it for a moment, but he doesn’t retract his offer. He just leans his head on his other hand and stares away from you. After a moment more of increasing anxiety at the choice he’s given you, you decide to just fuck everything and tentatively place your hand over his.

He doesn’t say anything. He doesn’t even react, just intertwines his fingers with yours, softly holding your hand comfortably in his.

You feel like crying.

But you don’t. Instead, you set your mind to cherishing this moment and committing the feeling of his hand around yours to memory.

»»———— ☽ ————««

“Alright, let’s go over the whole plan once more before we call it a night,” Rose exclaims, standing up from her seat on the dining table. “To ensure we’re all on the same page before we leave tomorrow.”

“We get it, we have big goals to complete to make sure everything goes just as planned. Messing up on any of them is unacceptable because the rest of the plan could easily crumble if any of them are not fulfilled.” You relay, rolling your eyes. Rose pins you with a stern glare before resigning altogether when you refuse to look her in the eye. Instead, she focuses her attention on the map and points to a spot on it with her pointer finger.

“We have to get the Alternian Capital to retrieve Jane.” Your sibling begins, making a circular motion around a castle structure near the coast. “Her wedding ceremony is likely to happen very soon, the Condesce wouldn’t wait around for unnecessary things to the wedding. It’s still a big celebration though, and while she might want to get it over with as soon as possible, her people probably demand a lavish event to mark the occasion. We’ve already wasted precious time looking for Dave while she went ahead and took Jane from the Prospit Kingdom. Preparations for the big event are likely already done, so we must get there as soon as possible.” Then she moves her manicured finger from the castle drawing to a long winding path that passes through trees and other minor townships and cities, both big and small. She stops in a drawing of a small village and taps it twice.

“Luckily for us, even if this village is on the outskirts of the Alternian Empire, getting to the Capital by the main road on horseback should only take a week of travel at maximum. If we minimize our breaks and the amount of downtime we need to sleep, we should get there by day four, maybe half of five.

“Once we get to the Capital, we should still have some time to figure where they’re keeping Jane. If worse comes to worst and we arrive on the day of the wedding, or even a day after it, I’m sure we can still find a way to sneak her out. In any case, locating her will be easier, as plenty of trolls will be advertising the event, like where and when the wedding is happening. And if she is married, she’ll most likely reside in The Grand Highblood’s main estate for a day or two before being shipped off to wherever the honeymoon is supposed to take place. It’s a tight window of time to retrieve her, but this is only a worst-case scenario. We’ll deal with it when we get there.” She picks up a parchment paper hiding under one of the maps and places it on top of. On the paper is a list of the goals you need to achieve, all in Rose’s impeccable handwriting.

“Once we retrieve Jane, we have to return to Derse immediately.” She states, tapping on one of the bullet points on the paper. It’s both underlined and circled, to make a point about its importance. Even though you’re pretty sure she’s the only one who read the paper because the only person she trusts to handle it properly is herself. “Even if we manage to sneak Jane out without alerting anyone, it won’t be long before the Empress finds out. She’ll likely send an entire army our way afterwards, and in that time, we have to undo the curse. Time is on our side for this part though. Organizing massive troops to go from one place to another takes a lot of time and effort to do. We’ll have plenty of time to undo the curse, evacuate the city, and set up a defence before the first of her troops is even visible over the horizon.”

Rose pauses from her intense staring at the map to look over at John. “And John, you’re well aware of your role once we return to Derse?” She asks, and your best friend simply nods somberly.

“We’ll have to split up.” He states, a solemn and hard expression on his face. It’s a side of him you’ve never seen. It’s the side of him as a ruler, a carefully cultivated mask that hides emotions. It's a side you know well yourself because, under any other circumstance, you would be the same. If you were back in your Kingdom with your siblings, discussing strategies in the war room, it would be easy for you to slip into that role. “I’ll have to head west using my Breath magic to reach Prospit. Then I’ll organize Prospit’s troops with Jake and map out a travel route back to Derse to provide support against whatever army the Condesce brings. Correct?”

For the first time, Rose looks remorseful at what she’s asking you and John to do for the good of your Kingdoms. She knows your odds look bleak, but you can’t back down without at least putting up a fight. And there is no greater defeat than failing the people you were sworn to protect as their rulers.

Your sibling nods in confirmation to John, and you’re struck by an overwhelming feeling of dread. It’s suffocating and it makes it hard for you to breathe.

Hearing all of it get said… It makes everything feel more real. Having a clear plan of action makes your goals feel more tangible. But as a consequence of it, it also makes the threat that much more real too.

The Empress has given you no choice. This is the only sensible action to take after the havoc she’s caused.

But the only thing on your mind, if everything in Rose’s plan succeeds, is what this would mean for Karkat and Kanaya.

»»———— ☽ ————««

There’s no denying it anymore. After hearing the humans’ plans by proxy of being in the same vicinity as them, they’ve made their intentions very clear. You don’t blame them though. Even if they intend to make war with your race, you at least know the _real_ reasons behind it. Something you’re certain will get twisted by the Condesce if it were to happen.

You know they wouldn’t have come to this conclusion if the Empress didn’t back them up to a corner. Still… You can’t help but feel chills run down your back every time your mind understands just how near an all-out war is.

And Dave… You never would’ve imagined Dave to be in the middle of all of it.

The last two days have been… Emotionally confusing for you. Which is the major understatement of the sweep.

Yes, you were mad at him for keeping such a big and shitty secret from you. And you blamed Kanaya for a little while for not immediately alerting you of things she was already considering. But you can hardly condemn him completely for doing what he did back then. You can confidently say you wouldn’t be as hesitant as you are now to bid the half corvid goodbye if he told you the truth the first time you encountered each other.

Speaking of goodbyes… 

Dave has been avoiding you all morning as you and Kanaya help the humans double-check their supplies. You didn’t expect it to feel as heavy as it does in your chest, especially since you always knew this day was coming. The surprises along the way may have complicated shit unnecessarily, but how you felt about Dave at the festival hasn’t changed much since all the truths have been revealed.

You just wish he’d look at you instead of constantly ducking his head and busying himself with something else whenever you come near.

“Is that everything?” Kanaya inquires, patting Rose’s now properly bridled and saddled black horse. Rose has changed into more inconspicuous clothing, one that will attract less attention than her bright lavender seer robes that has her family’s royal insignia clearly painted on the back like a target.

Kanaya let her borrow a few pieces of clothing to go along with what Rose already had. Now, the blonde human is sporting earthy tones, with bland beige pants and black riding boots. On her waist is a belt with multiple pouches in black leather, with a forest green threadbare shirt covered up by a loose brown corset and a long dark cedar cloak. An extra black satchel is slung across her chest and her hands are covered with thick black leather gloves. The outfit is completed with a short sword strapped on her waist, hidden by her cloak.

She checks over Kanaya’s handiwork on her horse and smiles. “Yes. You’ve done a perfect job bridling and putting a saddle on Prince without any complaints from him. Did you used to ride horses, Kanaya?”

Your jade friend seems to flush at Rose’s unnecessary proximity to her, brushing a lock of hair behind her pointed ears. You tune out their small talk and instead look for the other two humans. You’ve long since finished bridling and saddling John’s brown spotted stallion while he stayed inside to change his clothes. Dave followed him in, muttering something about helping him. The excuse is as absurd as it is flimsy because you highly doubt that John isn’t capable of dressing himself.

When you enter the hive, you find John and Dave talking in hushed voices by the dining table. The blue-eyed princeling is the first to notice you, smiling and waving at you. His outfit isn’t much different from his original travelling gear. All that’s different is that he’s wearing a dark cloak around his shoulders, similar to Rose’s, and he’s also got a short sword equipped around his hip.

“Karkat! You’ll see us off at the edge of the village, right?” John cheerfully asks while Dave tries his hardest not to look at you at all. At this point, it’s starting to tick you off.

“Yeah.” You reply curtly. “I just came in here to tell you that Rose and Kanaya are finished getting your horses ready. You’re all set to leave.”

John gives Dave a pointed look but the other princeling simply shrugs it off and exits the hive, brushing past you without a second glance. John sighs expressively, shaking his head. “I’m really sorry about Dave’s attitude today,” John exclaims as he approaches the door. You just roll your eyes as you follow him out.

“You shouldn’t be saying sorry for shit you didn’t even do. It doesn’t matter anyway. I don’t care.” You say, but it comes out a little more forceful than you intended. It sounds like you’re trying to convince yourself of that statement and you hate how obvious it comes across. You hate John’s pitying look even more.

Once everyone is outside the hive, you and Kanaya escort the humans to the edge of the village where it connects to the main road they plan on taking to the Capital. Other villagers seem to come out of their shell too, curious to see the only exciting thing to have ever happened in this settlement leave.

When you get to the point where the road splits off into a winding path across the many, many, hills of grass, you stop. Rose and John have been guiding their horse by their reins up until now. Dave doesn’t need a horse, he can very well fly, as they discussed yesterday.

The first to say goodbye is, of course, Rose Lalonde.

She smiles at you and Kanaya, giving you both a nod of gratitude. “Thank you for assisting us thus far. Your help will certainly not be forgotten, nor will it be spoken to anyone else, I promise you. Thank you, from the very bottom of our hearts, mine especially.” She gives you a little curtsy while she takes Kanaya’s hand and gives it a dainty kiss. Her farewell is formal, but the moment she spends lingering on Kanaya’s hand suggests it might not be for your jade friend.

John smiles jauntily at you, pulling both you and Kanaya into a tight group hug. One you do begrudgingly but quickly pull away from once it's done. “It was nice meeting the two of you for a very brief while. Kanaya, your hospitality is unmatched. We’re very grateful to you for letting us stay as long as you did. Truly, we'll find a way to repay you one day.” He says, giving you both one last pat on the shoulder before he turns away.

Rose is quick to hop onto her stallion, but John hesitates as he stares at his friend who refuses to look at either you or Kanaya.

He really is a piece of fucking work, isn’t he? “Dave.” You call his name impatiently and cross your arms. He seems to jump when you address him before slowly and reluctantly turning to look at you.

Dave shuffles to stand in front of you, and you can more clearly see the conflict within him. His tail feathers are drooped, and so are his wings. “So, this is goodbye, huh?” He starts, voice low.

You sigh and drop your arms. “Yeah. And you won’t even let me give you a proper send-off?” You reply sharply. You can’t help it. You’re mad at him.

“I-” Dave starts, opening his mouth before closing it again. He does this again a few times, hesitant in his words and unsure which one he should say. Finally, he bites his lower lip and asks, “Can I?”

You know what he means. He doesn’t have to spell it out for you. The two of you have been dancing around it for weeks now. You swallow the lump in your throat, hating how dry your mouth feels. “Sure. Why the fuck not? It’s as good a send-off as any.” You tell him, trying your best to ignore the loud drumming of your heart. 

His pupils flash and his plume puffs up in that endearing way you’ve come to love about him, framing his flushed face. He meets your eyes for a very brief moment, and you forget to breathe.

Then, timidly, carefully, he places his clawed hands on your shoulders and leans in, pressing his lips softly against yours. It lasts barely a second, before he pulls away, face red.

“Seriously?” You scoff, and he barely has time to squawk in protest before you shut him up when you pull him into you by his waist.

You kiss him properly, and the way he so eagerly opens his mouth into yours is almost too painful for you. You tilt his head up using your other hand, gently guiding him through it. Dave is adept at responding to your touch, and it makes you wonder if he’s kissed a lot of people before.

But just like all things, it ends far too quickly than you wished it would. When you part, Dave’s hazy expression makes it clear to you that his resolve has completely crumbled by now. He didn’t want to say goodbye. Not because it was too hard for him. But because he knew if he did, he wouldn’t be able to stop himself from asking something he knew you’d both regret.

You knew what he was going to say before he even says it.

“Come with us. Come with me. Please.” It's a pitiful plea. A pitiful request. One you’re surprised to find yourself hesitating to refuse.

As if sensing your uncertainty, Kanaya touches your arm and you have to force yourself to let go of Dave to look at her. She pulls you aside for a moment while the three humans look on in both wonder and puzzlement at what just happened. Whether it was the kiss or Dave's dumb and selfish request, you don’t care enough to find out.

“Karkat-” She begins but you hold up a hand to stop her. You already know what she’s going to say to you.

“I know, alright? I fucking know I shouldn’t, if I do, it’s practically a death sentence for me. Their plan- it’s a suicide mission. I know I shouldn’t, I’m aware that I should refuse. You don’t have to tell me, Kanaya. Believe it or not, I'm actually capable of thinking rationally.”

To your surprise, she frowns at you. “That is not what I was going to say at all.” She simply tells you. “What I was going to say is that if you’re going, so am I.”

“What?!” You shout. When all the humans collectively swivel their head in your direction, you sigh. You need to work on your tonal control. “If you are, that’s more of a reason for me to refuse. I can’t let you go with them.”

The jade crosses her arms, creased eyebrows deepening. “And what makes it more okay for you to go with them without me? My face is on the same wanted papers as yours, Karkat. If either of us goes, we’ll both be facing the same risks by going back to the Capital. At least this way, we won’t have to face any of it on our own. Besides, the more of us there, the easier it will be to watch each other’s backs too. I know you want to protect Dave, don’t even try to deny it. Isn’t it time to finally stop running, Karkat? We’ve both been doing it for sweeps now, and we’ve both lost a great deal because of it. Don’t you think it’s time to face the thing we’ve been running away from?”

You grit your teeth. You hate the idea of being the reason Kanaya purposely puts herself back in harm's way. As if seeing exactly what’s going through your mind, Kanaya’s expression turns from stubbornness to one of resolution.

“It’s my choice, Karkat. I am not your responsibility, and you are not mine. We are not moirails. I can take care of myself.” She tells you, and though her words are hurtful, you know why she phrases it the way she does.

It’s to free you from the things holding you back.

»»———— ☽ ————««

“Interesting.” You drawl, watching the snivelling lowblood kneeling on the floor in front of your dais. She’s got her head pressed to the floor, hands on either side of her head in a standard deep bow. “So you say… Dersite royalty came to your village about…?”

“Four days ago, your Imperious Condescension. I rode here as soon as I saw the insignia.” She eagerly fills in for you. It’s always so delightful to see your subjects so keen to please you in any way possible. It’s cute.

“Raise your head. What's your name, my darling lowblood?” You ask, leaning ever so slightly in your throne as the burgundy blood raises her head from the floor just a little too high. Her young eyes sparkle.

“Vilana, Your Highness. Vilana Renmae.”

You smile sweetly at her, relishing in the hope that fills her eyes. You can see the anticipation of a prize in her eyes. Like a dog awaiting a treat for good behaviour.

But if she’s this dedicated to running her mouth to the point of riding for four days none stop just to tell you this, you can’t trust her to keep this juicy information to herself.

She’s a liability.

And you hate having liabilities.

At the end of the long hallway leading up to your throne room is a pair of striking eyes, the rest of their body cloaked in shadow. You wave a hand their way. “You know what to do.” You order tersely.

Wordlessly, they step out of the shadows to do your bidding. Unquestioningly. Mindlessly. Just the way you like it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eyyyyyy, I'm real sorry for all these cliff-hangers :")
> 
> But hey, they finally got to it!!!! The kiss you've all been waiting for uwu Your welcome.


	10. The Grand Capital Heist (part 1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our heroes arrive at the heart of enemy territory.
> 
> Will everything go as planned? Or do the city's sinister walls have something else in store...?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heads up, this chapter also comes in two parts!

┍━━━━━━━━━━━━━┑

_“Eleven for health_

_Of the maiden of life_

_For she is set to wed_

_And become a goat’s wife.”_

┕━━━━━━━━━━━━━┙

After Karkat and Kanaya joined your party, you had to return to the village to make last-minute arrangements.

The rest of you went back to the market place to gather extra items for the journey ahead, as the current supplies you did pack were only meant to last three people. By the time you’ve got everything you need, like two extra horses from Equius’ stables, new adventuring gear for both Kanaya and Karkat, some weapons for both, and extra supplies, it was already sundown.

Rose wouldn’t tell you outright, but you can tell the delay ticked her off some because you’ve had to adjust your arrival time. The amount of travel time is still the same, but you’ll most likely arrive in the Capital a day or two later than you intended than if you left this morning.

She’ll get over it though, she knows having more hands to help will only give your group a better chance at succeeding. Besides, you think you covered a good amount of ground with the last bit of sunlight left in the day. She, of course, still pushed the limits though. Now you’re finally making camp near midnight on the grass just off the main road you were travelling on.

You’ve always known that your closest sibling is a very committed type of person. She doesn’t do ‘flings’ of any sort, whether it’s an activity or a person. But you’ve never seen her this determined, to the point of being as strict as she is right now.

She manages to pitch a tent in under ten minutes all on her own. Then she goes on to help you and John pitch your tents. And when the camp is all set up, she makes quick work of her dinner before retreating to her tent to sleep, telling you all to do the same. She expects you to be ready to travel before the sun even comes up tomorrow morning. 

It’s irritating, but you don’t say anything. She cares about this mission a whole lot and that commitment will only help you in the long run.

So you do as you’re told and finish your meal quickly before bidding everyone good night. Kanaya and John tell you that they’ll put out the fire for tonight, so with that sorted, you enter your tent.

Because Rose only expected the three of you to be travelling throughout this self-imposed quest, she only brought three sets of tents. One for her, one for John, and one for you, when they did eventually find you. This essentially means you have to share your tents with the trolls, and it’s pretty obvious who went with who without you having to make it explicit.

The tents are drab old things, made up of poles and durable cloth, and stands just tall enough for you to stand on your knees. Inside is… Cozy. Well, claustrophobic might be a more accurate word, but what can you do? Complaining about shit isn’t going to change how big the tent is, so you might as well try and find the silver lining in your otherwise miserable sleeping set up.

On the ground is a sleeping implement much like the ones you used when you travelled to the village with Karkat a long time ago. While you’re more comfortable sleeping upright like a bird, there’s nothing for you to perch upon when you’re surrounded by empty grass hills. The seasons are also in that transitional period, moving from the humidity of summer to the cool breeze of autumn. The weather is bound to only get colder from here on out.

With a sigh, you crawl into your sleeping bag, pulling the fur blankets on top of your body. It’s a bit uncomfortable for you because of your unusual physiology, but it’ll have to do. It takes a few more minutes before a certain troll finally enters your tent to sleep in his sleeping bag beside you.

You’ve got your back turned to him, but you can hear him shuffling around behind you, trying to get comfortable. Eventually, all noise ceases altogether and you’re left in the dark with your thoughts.

Fuck.

You’re not sleepy at all.

Before you know what you’re even doing, you’re shifting to face Karkat. Even though you can’t see him at all.

This is so pointless. What the fuck are you doing?

“What the fuck do you want?” He asks before you can start shifting again and return to your original position. Involuntarily, your body tenses at his voice, feathers standing on end for a moment like you’ve been caught doing something bad.

It’s been so quiet that his low grumble sounds far too loud in the stillness of the night. “I can’t get any fucking sleep if you continue moving around and making noise, so I might as well get this shit over with instead of fruitlessly waiting for you to get over your insomnia. What do you want, Dave?”

Damn it, now you’re self-conscious about your every movement that you forget to breathe for a full second. “Geez, sorry I’m ruining your beauty sleep then.” You retort.

You hear him sigh as he shifts in his sleeping bag. A moment later, two pairs of faintly glowing red eyes stare back at you. It’s unnerving, and you’re still not used to trolls having eyes that glow in the dark. “I’m… Sorry. There’s something on your mind, right? Do you want to talk about it?”

You purse your lips. There’s a lot of things on your mind. But you’re not sure you want to keep him up with it. You have to wake up early after all.

“It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it.” You tell him. Even in this pitch-black darkness, you can get a clear image of his expression in your mind based solely on the way his eyes narrow ever so slightly. He’s not buying your shitty, excrement covered produce.

“Just tell me, Dave. If talking about it will help, then just do it instead of painfully prolonging the process and wasting both of our time.” Karkat chides. Although his tone is harsh, you easily pick on the sincerity in his words. It makes you smile. But it also makes you roll your eyes.

“Hypocrite.” You state sarcastically. “Of course you would know everything about tiptoeing around the obvious and painfully prolonging shit, wouldn’t you? If your excuse is you didn’t know I liked you until the festival, I’ll truly be disappointed.”

You feel a soft flick on your forehead. “Fine. If you’re going to be a smartass about it, then I retract my offer to listen to whatever nonsense is on your mind right now. Good night.”

“Wait!” You reach out to him blindly in the dark when you hear him shifting. Your hand catches something, but Karkat flicks your hand before you can make out what it was. 

“That’s my ear, fuckass.” Another second later, he’s back to staring at you with his usual narrowed eyes. “Do you want to talk or not? I’m not offering it a third time.”

You think about what to say as you fiddle with the material of your blanket. Then, finally, you sigh. “Why did you decide to come?”

He’s quiet for a long while, averting his eyes away from you. “... What kind of answer are you looking for?” He eventually replies, but it’s a question of his own.

“Well…” You start, biting your lip. “You’ve heard of what Rose plans to do when this whole adventure and questing business is done. And I can guarantee that my other siblings will support it once we free them of the sleeping curse. Why put yourself at risk of being publically hanged for treason and conspiracy against your own monarch? It makes no sense, logically.”

Karkat meets your gaze again, a resigned resolve in his eyes. “Because I’m already a wanted criminal? Adding a few more crimes to my already offensive existence is nothing to me at this point. Besides, it wasn’t a logical decision in the first place. You should already know that.”

You feel your chest swell with an indescribable feeling for a moment.

You hesitate for a moment before you ask your second question. “... What about Kanaya?”

It’s his turn to sigh now, closing his eyes. “She’s on a wanted poster too.”

Now that’s a fucking twist you never would’ve guessed. You knew she was a jade, but if you’re being honest, it’s kind of hard to discern olive from jade anyway so you didn’t think it was a big deal that Kanaya masquerades as a caste below her real blood. You didn’t think much of it.

Her being wanted both makes more sense and makes no sense at all.

“Seriously? Why? What did she do?”

Karkat opens his eyes again to stare at you. “It’s not my story to tell.” He explains simply. You nod, understanding.

“Then… What will you do when everything is all said and done?” You continue to ask. You might not like his answer, but you have to know. It will bother you the rest of the journey if you don’t, and he wants to assure you, doesn’t he?

“If we don’t inevitably die a very painful death at the hands of fish bitch?” He inquires, tone derisive. “If we do manage to pull off the impossible and survive with our lives and limbs still intact… What would you have me do? I doubt I can go anywhere near the Troll Empire after this, and even my shitty hive in the forest might be compromised. Kanaya will be in the same situation as me. So unless the Condesce suddenly croaks, she’ll be actively gunning for us. Will you take responsibility for making stupid decisions without thinking about it, Dave?”

Only Karkat can make you feel like shit while telling you he’s probably going to stick with you till the end of the line. You did ask an unfair request from him. A selfish and unfair request. He could’ve said no. Yet, he did the utterly stupid in return and agreed to join you in this quest. A fool’s errand, some might even call it.

You don’t know if you should feel honoured and flattered, or if you should feel guilty and selfish. He’s willing to go this far for you and the thought of being the one responsible if he gets hurt… You hate it.

“I hate you.” You tell him, voice barely above a whisper.

“No, you don’t.” He counters, and you can hear the smile in his voice.

Blindly, you reach out towards him again, careful with your movements this time as you pad along the ground looking for his hand. Before you even find it though, he does it for you, taking your hand in his and lightly holding it.

Karkat’s hands are only slightly bigger than yours, calloused and rough from the work he does living alone in the forest. But his touch is one you can get used to if you haven’t already. “Go to sleep, Dave.” He mutters to you before closing his eyes, red orbs disappearing to the blackness of the night.

You sigh and do the same. Many thoughts still trouble you, but the comforting pressure of his hand in yours helps you give into sleep.

»»———— ☽ ————««

Travelling across the land goes about the same as the first night. With Rose ordering the four of you around and staying ahead of the group when you’re actually on your horses. It’s irksome on occasion, but her Kingdom is on the line so you can’t fault her tenacity.

She runs all of you tired, but you make it to the Capital in record time. By day five, you’ve finally arrived at your destination. Before you enter into the city proper though, you and your group stop just outside the border and tie your horses’ reins on low hanging tree branches. Riding in on horses will only catch attention and you’re here on an espionage mission.

As all of you put your hoods on, Kanaya touches your arm and passes you a familiar-looking vial. It’s hourglass-shaped with a silvery liquid inside, but when put against the light you note that gives off olive hues. Glancing over at her, you also note she’s already taken it and is disguising herself as a bronze.

It’s probably a good call. While their wanted posters may be out of date because it’s been so long since the bounty on your heads were put, it’s still probably a good precautionary measure to distance yourself from your actual blood colour as much as possible.

You uncork the vial and quickly down it before tucking it away in your pocket. Once your eye colour is sufficiently hidden, you follow the humans as they march into the city on foot.

It’s been so long since you last stepped foot into Alternia’s Capital. So much has changed, while a few aspects stayed the same. There’s an air of both familiarity and unfamiliarity to the city as you look around at the buildings.

In a word, the Alternian Capital is big. Because it’s both the Capital and it’s near the coast, it’s larger than any other city you know of, even human ones. Your race is known for its affinity with the ocean, even though most trolls aren’t particularly fond of water. You only became known for it because the ruling class is made up of mostly seadwellers and cold-blooded land-dwellers, most of whom prefer beaches and hot weather. So the majority of your race’s wealth comes from coastal trades as a result of your biology.

Due to the Capital being the central hub for most of the wealthiest ports in Alternia, it attracts all sorts of trolls to settle here. From the highest of highs to the lowest of lows, the Capital is also the social scene of the Empire. The glitz, the glamour, it’s all tripled here in the Capital as encouraged by the Empress.

But you know what filth lurks underneath all the luxury. A once close friend of yours made you privy of the rampant crime and discrimination against lows that happen here.

In between all the booming theatres, palatial bathhouses, and astonishing architecture are seedy alleyways, rundown lowblood slums, and unmaintained local businesses run by highbloods that don't care for its lowblood employees.

Still, trolls stay under the employ of self-imposed royalty because they have nowhere else to go. They make it work and they reap the scraps from the lavish parties the highbloods throw.

As you look around your surroundings now, you can easily see how many lowbloods outnumber the highbloods. But even if they outnumber the nobility by thousands, a rebellion has never entered their minds. Not after the crushing defeat of your ‘supposed’ ancestor. A hundred sweeps have passed since then, but the long-living highbloods never forget to remind it’s citizens who survived the previous attempt at a revolution. And who didn’t.

So life goes on as it is. The drudgery through the same shitty circumstances every day.

Except for today, it seems.

The city has changed a lot since you last strolled through its streets. You can easily tell that it’s definitely expanded. But aside from that, the celebratory decorations are to miss.

Streamers and balloons are strung up on every lamppost and in every wooden beam of every building. White petals and colourful confetti litter the cobblestoned ground, and loud trumpets can be heard even if you can’t see who exactly is playing it because it’s so fucking crowded. The most striking of the scene before you though is the trolls marching in tight lines down the street, full of performers and entertainers in insane, eye-catching outfits while doing equally insane, eye-catching stunts.

That’s when it hits you.

It’s a celebratory parade.

The whole vibe of the city is very reminiscent of the out of control partying trolls would do on Autumnal Fest. The decorations, the trolls cheering, the obnoxiously loud music coming from seemingly nowhere. They’re celebrating the wedding.

Your attention is forcefully pulled away from the craziness happening through the streets by your companions. Rose and Kanaya have pulled you all away from the action and into a fairly secluded alleyway.

“I believe it’s obvious to all of us what’s happening here, correct?” Rose begins, looking at each of you in the eye. All of you nod your head in agreement and she gives you a satisfied nod in return. “Good. So we’re on the same page. Now, it’s vitally important for us to find out where and when the wedding is happening. We’ll all split up and gather as much information as we can before reconvening.”

The blonde then opens one of her waist pouches and retrieves three yellow beaded bracelets. She hands one to the two other humans. “These are cloaking charms. I’ve imbued it with Light aspect magic that will distort your appearance to everyone who sees you. It will give you grey skin to blend in with the crowd. Just try to not get your hood pulled down. It can’t create an illusion of horns out of nothing so without the hood, you’ll appear as a hornless troll.” She explains, more to the other two than to you and Kanaya.

Both humans give a nod of their head and slip on the charm. Sure enough, the charm takes effect and a glimmer of light washes over them. When it dissipates, the humans’ once fair skin is replaced by believable grey skin. Dave’s bird-like body is still the same, but you’d say he’s sufficiently hiding his form with the cloak he’s wearing. At a glance, both of them pass for trolls.

Rose then slips hers on last and the same thing happens for her. “You said you and Kanaya once lived here, correct? You don't need maps to navigate the city, then?” She asks both of you as she opens the bag across her chest, retrieving three rolled up pieces of paper.

You and Kanaya share a look before nodding in sync. Rose, once again, gives a satisfied nod. “Good, then we’re all set. As for where we should reconvene…” Once she passes the other two maps of their own, she opens hers. The blonde human’s eyes scan it for a long moment before putting a finger on her map, showing it to the other two. “The Great Statue. It’s not far from here and it should be a striking enough landmark to find. Do you two know where it is?”

Rose’s eyes flit up to meet both of your gazes. You and Kanaya share another look, smiling knowingly at one another. “Yes. We know where that is. We’ll meet you there at noon?” She confirms.

This time, Rose smiles. “Let’s go, then.”

»»———— ☽ ————««

“Stay safe and come back in one piece, alright?”

His words echo in your head as you separate from the group to search for clues in your half of the city. Rose wanted to search for answers near the castle, Kanaya went off to search in the social centers, John thought it was best to stick near the entrance of the city, and Dave decided the best place to look for clues is in the taverns with drunkards.

I should be the one telling you that, dumbass.

Not that you’re truly worried about his safety nor do you believe he can’t handle himself when it came down to it. It’s just… You’ve had some experience with drunk trolls before. Even when disguised as a burgundy, not many job options were open to you. You've been to a troll tavern before.

It’s not a completely bad idea either. Liquid courage does tend to get all sorts of trolls talking when they’ve had enough of it. But nobody ever said that worrying about someone was a crime. You wouldn’t be surprised if queen fish bitch did outlaw it though.

The area you decided to search is your old neighbourhood. The place you used to live in before you were forced to flee. As expected, it’s somewhere in between two worlds. In between the more acceptable neighbourhoods and the lowblood slums.

The streets here are quieter, with barely any fanfare or explosive partying like what you witnessed in the entrance to the city. Here, the buildings are in a constant state of disrepair and the cobblestone path is caked with dirt and mud. Here, trolls celebrate the occasion more cynically, with drunk lowbloods making a ruckus of the place and prostitutes openly soliciting passersby. Here, the decorations are barely present at all and there’s no cheer or joy to be had.

You didn't have many fond memories of this place. If anything, your immediate surroundings gave you a valid reason for wanting to stay inside all day. But she always found some way to drag outside, away from this place. To somewhere nicer, somewhere prettier, somewhere you now know you can never call home.

The thought that you could was a nice escape though. You suppose, in the end, making you smile for even a little while was her goal. One she accomplished well.

Looking around at the depressing scenery of lifeless colours, you start to question why you thought coming back here was a good idea. Did you really expect it to be as different as the rest of the city? The sad truth is, no matter how much time passes, this place will probably never change. Not until someone else takes the throne.

Why did you even come here? You could’ve searched for answers literally anywhere else but here. None of the trolls here would be willing to tell you anything unless there’s something in it for them, so what the fuck was the point of walking all the way here? Were you hoping to see something different than what you’re seeing now?

Or are you hoping to bump into a ghost that no longer exists in the present?

By the time you start recognizing specific buildings you pass by, it’s already too late to turn back. Without even realizing it, your feet have taken you to where you used to live. In your mind’s eye, you remember the short, unassuming building that once stood here. It was nothing special, a dull beige apartment as forgettable as everything else in this part of the city.

Now, in its place, is… Nothing. In its place is nothing but charred wood and remnants of what was once furniture.

They burned down your hive in the middle of the night. They chanted murder outside of your windows as they brought torches to your home. You would’ve certainly died that night if she didn’t come to your aid.

You’ve wondered for sweeps now, why she did it. Why she outted you, only to sneak you out moments before they burned down your hive.

Were you hoping to find answers to your selfish questions amongst the ash of who you once were? Is that why your body subconsciously brought you here? Is finding what is essentially a grave of yours everything you’ve been searching for?

If it is, you want to have a very long word with the being controlling the fates of your journey. This is bullshit, you didn’t sign up for this circus shit show of a quest and you want out.

You pull your cloak tighter around yourself and sharply turn on your heel, walking away from the last threads of your past. They didn’t even bother trying to replace it with something else, something new. They just left it as it is, a monument of hate for the blood that courses through your veins.

You hate how much this makes your blood boil. You hate how angry you still are over something you thought you’ve let go by now. You hate that your past still haunts you to this day.

Even though you’re angry and ready to burst at your discovery, you find yourself pausing. You find yourself looking back at the devastation of what was once your home one more time. There’s a strange chill that runs down your spine, a discomforting feeling in the back of your neck.

You feel like you’re being watched.

»»———— ☽ ————««

The closer you get to the castle, the thicker the crowd becomes.

Bigger parades roll down the street, complete with a whole marching band playing music so loud you feel like you’re going deaf. The joyous cheering from the trolls doesn’t help either.

Aside from the rowdy commoners, you’ve also noticed palace guards quietly surveying over the procession. Seadwellers in royal regalia, white and obvious even as they try to keep themselves hidden amongst the corners of the celebration. It’s good for you that they’re so easy to spot. It makes avoiding them easier for you.

You’re not sure what you’re looking for. But you’re sure trolls who live around the area know something.

So you push through the crowd, deftly avoiding the prying eyes of the guards, and eventually make it there.

Well, as close as you’re going to get.

The Alternian castle, the thing the whole Empire is built around, is a grand thing. Above the walls that surround it are towers and spires that reach the sky, topped predictably with fuschia flags containing the sign of the current reigning fuschia family. The Peixes.

The trolls here are clearly nobler than the others you’ve come across. They’re still as loud as the lowbloods you came across, but somehow, they seem more obnoxious.

You start trying to fight your way to the edges of the festival, and away from the raucous party. You need to be able to hear the trolls you try to eavesdrop on.

The palace guards are more numerous here, so you’ll have to be very careful about your every move. You need to find some way to look natural as you stand around, listening to whatever gossip these nobles are talking about. Looking around, the first thing your eyes land on is a stand that seems to be selling festival food.

You quickly make your way over, cringing internally when you see what kind of food stall it is. It’s authentic troll cuisine, which means insects and grubs. Luckily for you, they’re also selling normal funnel cake, so that’s the one you order.

After you receive your snack on a long cardboard container, you begin to leave until your eye catches something that gives you pause. You look around to make sure nobody has found you suspicious yet before making your way over.

On the stone wall of an alleyway, is a piece of paper, barely sticking on. Its edges are tattered and it’s clear it’s been on here for quite some time. But the letters on it are still very eligible.

“Wanted dead or alive by the Empire, on charges of slander and rebellion. Bounty reward: Ten thousand shillings.” You read quietly, eyes travelling once again to the thing that caught your eye. Kanaya’s unmistakable features, looking far younger than she looks now. Right below the image is her name, confirming everything.

Kanaya Maryam. An Alternian fugitive with a ten thousand bounty on her head.

Just who the fuck did you bring on this quest?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Man, I'm rlly sorry for all the back to back cliff hangers 😔


	11. The Grand Capital Heist (part 2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shocking revelations abound.
> 
> Will this hinder our group of heroes from escaping the Capital alive?

You're heading to the rendezvous point after spending another hour fruitlessly searching for clues in your old neighbourhood. You weren’t even sure what you were looking for, which only made things harder for you. In the end, all you got was empty gossip from lowblood lowlifes.

The unsettling sensation in the back of your head stayed the whole time though. You know you’re being watched. Even as you weave your way through the crowd of festival-goers, you can still feel it.

You can’t lead your stalker back to the others. Whoever they are, they could prove to be very dangerous to the mission you’re on.

So, you try shaking off whoever’s following you by diving into the center of the chaos and moving in an erratic pattern to lose them in the crowd. When you feel like you’re no longer being watched, you take a moment to look at your surroundings to make sure you’re in the clear.

Only to be caught off guard by a forceful tug from the back of your hood that brings you into a dark, dank room.

You hear the faint sound of stones shifting before a locking mechanism seems to click into place. Then, using a match, the stranger who pulled you into this secret room lights a torch wall light.

It brightens the small room dimly, revealing dark stony walls and floors, with a foreboding spiral stone staircase leading down. The fiery embers still don't reveal who your captor is though, the hood they’re wearing hiding their visage with the long shadows the fire casts behind them.

Your hand instinctively goes to your sheathed dagger in your back pocket, muscles tensing in anticipation of… _Something_. “Who the fuck-”

Your speech is cut off when the hooded figure before you raises their hands and makes gestures with it. When your body starts moving rigidly against your own will, you only realize then that it’s a simple mind spell, forcing you to disarm yourself. And also to shut you up.

When your sword and dagger hit the stone floor with a resounding clink, only then does the figure finally reveal who they are.

In one fluid movement, they pull their hood down and you come face to face with the red eyes that’s haunted your nightmares for sweeps.

It’s been so long since you last saw her. The very last time was her panicked expression as she stood over your bed, waking you up to escort you moments before your hive was a scorching inferno. She still looked so young and reckless back then, red pools for eyes twinkling with controlled chaos.

The troll before you has changed just as much as you have in the past three sweeps. The shadows the fire casts look darker around her sharp features, making her look just as ghostly as she looked in your dreams. It only strikes you now just how much time has passed since then, and how much both of you have been irrevocably changed because of that incident. The girl you miss is no longer within her.

“Karkat.” She says your name swiftly and deliberately, with an edge that cuts you deeper than you anticipated. Her raspy voice has more nuance to it now, deeper and richer. She doesn’t sound like the teenage Terezi you knew. “What the hell are you doing back here?”

Her raised closed fist hand slowly opens and you can feel the hold of her spell dissipating before disappearing entirely when her arm falls back down to her side. The first thing you do is take a deep breath, trying to steady your hammering heart at coming face to face with her again.

“Terezi.” You finally greet her in return, her name like an old language you haven’t spoken since your grubhood. Familiar, yet unlike anything you’re used to. “What the _fuck_?”

The slap she gives you is sharp and burning, so fast you barely even saw it coming. When you look back at her with a hand cradling your cheek, you find her tough exterior of professionalism seeming to crack around the edges. Her brows are furrowed, her sharp teeth pulled into a snarl. Her eyes stare into yours as though staring into your very soul.

“You gogdamn ginormous ignoramus.” She spits out, controlled anger evident in her tone. “When the hell are you going to grow up and stop pulling stupid bullshit like this? After all these sweeps, are you still this childishly suicidal to come back to the heart of an Empire that wants you dead? You don’t get to ask the questions here, you fucking inconsiderate asshole. So let me rephrase my question in a way that can pierce your thick head into understanding. _What in name of all nine hells are you doing back in the Capital?_ ”

You grit your teeth, your anger rising to a boil within you. After all these sweeps, you thought she’d forgotten about you, that she’d discarded you because never once did she ever try to find you, reach out to you again, after everything that happened. But now that you’re back in the city, she has the nerve to interrogate you about why you’ve returned without even trying to explain why she drove you out in the first place?

You look away, unable to continue staring into her unnerving eyes. “I’m not here for you.”

You don’t know how she reacts to your statement, but when you look back at her, there’s a hard resolve on her expression. “Then why come back?”

“I-” You start, only to pause and frown. You trusted her once. Can you still trust her? Especially with this? “Terezi, I-”

Pyrope holds up a hand, stopping you. “You want to know if I’ll hand you over to the authorities if you tell me whatever it is you’re trying to keep a secret. While you may not have a shred of care left for me anymore, I do. My answer is no. I won’t turn you in. I don’t want to see you dead, Karkat. Never.”

The steadfast way she says her words somehow assures you that you can still trust her. But there’s a sting to it that hurts you deeper than any flesh wound. Even after all these sweeps. Even with your history with one another. Even after what she did- You feel a sense of calm wash over you as she moves her hand up to your forehead, before trailing down to cradle the same cheek she just slapped a few minutes ago.

“You can tell me anything, Karkat.” She tells you, a softness in her voice.

So you tell her everything. Well, everything that’s relevant. You’re already very late to the designated meeting point with the others.

She listens carefully, expression never shifting, gaze never wavering from yours once. There’s something eerie about the calm way she reacts to your situation and the information she then relays to you after your explanation. You can’t quite place what it is though, so you shake it off.

She lets you pick up your weapons before turning the torch she lit sideways. You hear stones shifting again and after a moment, sunlight filters into the tiny room. But as soon as the entrance is wide enough for a troll to step through, she pushes you out into the streets.

When you look back, you find the stone walls beginning to close once again. Her red eyes stare just past you, but you know she can see you in her own strange way. “Take care of yourself, Karkat. Please.”

And then she’s gone, leaving you staring at a wall as if she was never there in the first place.

A ghost that was there one second, and gone the next.

»»———— ☽ ————««

The rendezvous point you had all agreed to meet at was a statue near the main theatre of the city. It’s right beside one of the biggest entertainment centers of the city, where most trolls go to find something suitably sinful to burn their time away. 

Last you saw of ‘The Great Statue’, it was still under heavy construction. The foundation was only being to be built, with hundreds of lowblood trolls moving construction materials around it. But almost every troll who lived in the Capital already knew what it was going to look like once it was finished.

You were still a beginning jade, back then. Barely allowed to leave the nearby caverns, with very strict rules about where and when you can go places. Every detail of life was already planned out and controlled by someone else. But you always thought your work was vitally important so you accepted the restrictions put on you.

Though, on very rare occasions, you act on the little rebellious urges within you.

That’s how you first met her. At the base of where most of the construction happens, past midnight. They worked their labourers late into the night, but she was always a clever liar. For a very long time, you believed those lowbloods with haggard expressions and bruised hands did their work voluntarily, working late into the night by their volition.

You believed that she was a good overseer. Perhaps you always feared her a little too, because she knew vital secrets that could make your life hell.

Seeing the statue, fully built now, brings back memories. Most of them are bittersweet though.

The statue is big, almost as tall as the highest tower in the Peixes castle. It dominates all the other buildings around it, setting an imposing yet regal and almost godly presence, just as the Empress intended. The statue is like the physical embodiment of her narcissism, as it’s made in her image. The statue has one foot on top of a rock in a wide stance while one hand is holding her trident with the other placed confidently on her hip. She’s dressed in her royal regalia, but real gold pieces and precious gems were used to accentuate her jewelry.

When you look to the humans to see their reactions, you find yourself smiling in amusement. Rose’s reaction is one of obvious disdain, rolling her eyes as soon as she takes it in. John seems more curious, neck craning up to see it in its entirety. Dave is sniggering while eyeing Karkat, who’s already pinching the bridge of his nose.

The trolls here are much the same as in any other street. They throw white petals to the air in celebration, and there’s plenty of music and laughter all around. Your group splits off from the crowd and into an empty alleyway to quietly discuss your findings.

Rose is the first to pull her hood down. It looks so weird to see her with grey skin but without any horns at all. The rest of the humans follow suit when you’re all sure that no one nearby is paying attention to you.

“So? What’s our intel looking like right now?” She inquires, tone cold and calculating. But for some reason, something about her delivery feels a bit… Off? “Dave?”

The half-bird, half-human shrugs. “I got nothing. Turns out, drunk trolls have the attention span of a baby. They kept derailing the conversation far more often than I do. I did learn that an important troll wedding custom they have is that brides and grooms should never set foot in their future spouse’s home until they’re married. The indigo dude who told me this said that he blames it for the deterioration of his kismesis marriage to some snooty violet chick named Karren.”

The other sibling looks both impressed yet perplexed at the same time. “So we can rule out Jane being in one of The Grand Highblood’s many estates. What about you, John? What did you find?”

“I didn’t manage to coax anything out of the trolls I talked to, but I did find part of a poster advertising the wedding.” He pulls said torn piece of paper out of his pocket and hands it over for Rose to examine. “The wedding is definitely going to happen near Ampora Harbour, in a circus tent. I presume it’s to honour both the seadwellers and the purple caste at the same time.”

After the explanation given, she hands the paperback to John. Finally, Rose addresses you as she unfurls her map. You assume she’s checking where exactly the wedding is supposed to happen. Still, something about her behaviour is bugging you. “What about you, Kanaya? What did you find?”

“Well, I talked to an old contact of mine. A bronze seamstress who owns a fairly successful business in the shopping district. Turns out, plenty of seamstresses in the city have been flooded with all sorts of elaborate requests for clothing by highbloods. All of them vary in due dates, but none of them extend to the end of this week, which is two days from now. I’d wager a guess that’s the day of the wedding.”

The blonde female gives a satisfied nod of her head, moving onto Karkat. “And you, Karkat? Did you gather any useful information that could narrow down our search of the Prospit princess?” She inquires, folding up her map and putting it aside.

You glance over at your fellow troll, only now noticing how silent he’s been this entire time. It only takes one look for you to see the conflict in his eyes. And how distant he is from the present.

“Karkat?” You ask, putting a hand on his shoulder. He seems to come back, pupils finally focusing. Then, he sighs.

“I know exactly where she is.” He tells you all, voice almost sombre. It makes you frown.

“Well, where is she?” John is the first to ask, an urgent and elated edge to his tone of voice. But Rose frowns.

“Where did you get this information from? How credible is it?” She asks instead.

Dave frowns at his sister. “What the hell does that mean, Rose?” He counters, and Rose only spares him an exasperated glance.

“I’m just trying to make sure that we find her as quickly as possible. We can’t waste any time following a false lead, Dave.”

“The way you said it insinuates that you don’t trust him. What the fuck is up with that, Rose?” Dave retorts, eyes narrowing. Rose finally turns her focus from Karkat to her sibling, meeting his gaze with sharp eyes of her own.

“God, Dave. Is it so wrong of me to ask for more fucking information? Why don’t you stop thinking with your dick for once and use your head?”

Dave looks genuinely hurt by the biting comment, so you step in before it devolves into a full out quarrel. “Enough! Both of you!” You hiss out a whisper-shout, glaring at both siblings before looking around to make sure you didn’t catch any unwanted attention. When you think the coast is clear, you move your attention to Karkat. “Who did you get this information from, Karkat?” You ask softly.

He meets your gaze. There’s something haunted in his expression before he sighs and addresses the rest of the group. “It’s from someone I trust. An… Old friend. Look, you don’t have to trust it. But from the looks of it, we don’t have any other leads, do we?”

Rose still looks unconvinced while Dave continues to stubbornly glare at his sister.

Then, John finally speaks up and breaks the tense silence. “Rose. He has a point. No matter where it came from, it’s still a lead. We should at least check it out instead of continuing to fruitlessly search the entire city. The wedding is in two days. Can you really believe we’d find her in time if we searched every corner, every street, every district, of the Alternian Capital?” Rose looks at the blue-eyed human, her features softening. “Please.” He adds.

His plea seems to work because Rose finally lets out a resigned sigh. “Fine. Where is she then, Karkat?”

»»———— ☽ ————««

Jane is being kept in the Alternian tower prison.

At least, that’s what Karkat told you. And you trust him. You may not know who this ‘old friend’ of his is, but if Karkat trusts them, then you trust his judgement. Besides, how hard is it to believe that an influential royal with a wedding meant to forge an alliance between two Kingdoms is being detained at a highly secure prison?

So you began to prepare. Your group finds an unassuming inn in the bad part of the city to stay in for the rest of the day. While there, you plan how you’ll sneak your way in to get where Jane is being kept.

Karkat tells you that Jane is specifically being kept at the very top of the tower, and he also tells you the type of security that’s there. At some point, John even offers to check out the place so you’ll all have a better idea of what you’re dealing with. Rose also goes out to a nearby library to gather more information that way.

When both come back is when you all truly begin strategizing how you’ll infiltrate the compound. The information you have is very little, but you’re forced to make do. You only have two days to rescue the kidnapped Prospitian, which isn’t ideal, but you have no choice.

You spend the first night sleepless, planning your every move.

By the time dawn breaks, your group has a fairly decent plan in place. Only then does your sibling let you all get some sleep so you’re all well-rested by the time night falls.

As soon as the last shred of light is gone from the horizon, your group is as prepared as it can be for the mission. Which isn’t a whole lot, but it’ll have to do.

The Alternian streets are still rowdy with later partiers too stubborn to go to sleep. It’s almost as alive as it was in the day. Maybe even more so, with the twinkling lights of the lanterns and the joyous raucous laughter of booze-filled trolls. But your group pays them no mind as Kanaya leads the way through narrow streets and alleyways.

She deftly avoids the highblood patrols with ease, almost as if she’s done this countless times before. A memory her body unconsciously remembers. Karkat’s confession of Kanaya being a wanted criminal herself finds it’s way into your mind.

Before long though, she leads you to the tower. Just as John relayed to you, it’s near the outskirts of the city, in between the mountains and the forest that border the city’s edge. It’s an imposing building, almost a smaller version of the castle at the heart of the city, only smaller and darker.

Karkat points to the highest tower in the middle of the compound. “There. That’s where she is.” He states, simple and almost irrefutable in his tone.

Your group looks on as you hide around the edge of the forest with your hoods on. The tower dungeon is, predictably, crawling with guards. They’re not the normal patrols you saw earlier in the night, with plain white uniforms. These guards are mostly indigos and purples who wear black leather clothing and dark metal armour. They blend into the dark stone walls, and the only way to see them is through the reflection their armour gives off when light hits them.

Rose gathers you into a circle on the ground as she unfurls a map on the ground. With a snap of her fingers, a dim magical flame materializes between her fingers, illuminating the piece of paper for you all to see.

It’s an old floor plan of the tower dungeon, with updated markings made by Rose with the help of John after his short expedition to check out the place yesterday. Turns out, the building used to be the old Alternian castle, until an earthquake tore half of it down and the Condesce decided it was time to build a larger structure to call home. But she rebuilt parts of it back anyway and turned it into a prison instead.

Rose found the architecture sketches in an old history book at the library.

“Let’s go over our plan again, shall we?” She starts before diving right into it. “The castle has a barrier spell surrounding it. Anyone outside of it can’t physically enter the space without a specialized charm that allows passage through it. Our first step is easy since the only one who needs to do anything is John, who will use his Breath magic to swipe us our charms from the next rotation of guards that comes.”

Rose gives him a look and he nods, standing up to leave your little circle to do just that. He’s memorized the entirety of the plan already, getting the least sleep out of all of you because of it. It makes you worry, but this is his sister on the line.

“Once we have our charms, we’ll be able to pass through.” She continues, moving her fingers to little black dots scattered around the perimeter. “The foot soldiers patrolling hold a tight formation. The light guards shining beacons around from the two towers makes things even harder. It will take careful and precise timing to weave through the obstacles at just the right moment, which is harder because we only have basic knowledge of the entire circuit they do during the night. But from what I can tell, it’s similar enough to the day circuit. It feels a little too lazy for a prison holding an influential political figure but I know not to look a gift-horse in the mouth. The Batterwitch's arrogance is to our advantage.

“All five of us going in at the same time will be far too easy to spot. So we’ll be splitting into two groups, one that enters through the far right, and one that enters through the far left. The structure is very symmetrical in its architecture. There are four points of entry, from what I read in the books. Two back entrances and the main gate that’s mostly used for cargo and incoming prisoners. The fourth one is an old tunnel that runs underground. To where it connects to and why, I have no idea, so it’s irrelevant and unserviceable for our mission.” Rose points to the relevant points in the floor plan, circled perfectly.

“The group that goes to the far left will be Karkat, Kanaya, and led by Dave. The group that goes to the right will be me and John. Then, from that entry point, the way to the middle tallest tower should be fairly straight forward. We don’t know the patrol circuit inside the castle, so we’ll have to deal with each obstacle as it comes. This is the part I’m most concerned about, but as long as we don’t let any of them alert the whole compound, we should be fine.” Rose snakes her finger around the maze of rooms present on the paper before coming to a stop at a staircase.

“As I said, the structure is architecturally symmetrical. The main gate is the most direct way to the staircase leading to the top tower, but as that is far too guarded to enter through, we’ll have to go the long way around. The main foyer is likely to be just as heavily guarded as the main entrance on the outside. But through the back entrance, it’s just one long hallway that leads around to the front where the first staircase leading upstairs is. There are three floors and they’re all similar in build, the only difference being that the staircase leading onto the next level is on the other end of the hall. We’ll have to maneuver in a zigzag pattern as we climb each floor. It’s a long and tedious way to get to the third floor where the hallways from either side finally merge to a spiral staircase that will lead up to the tower.” She unfurls two other pieces of paper, the second and third floor of the building respectively.

“From there, we’ll reconvene, hopefully without either group having alerted anyone. It’s straight forward from there, going up the tower to Jane’s jail cell.” Rose finally concludes, taking the pieces of paper and setting it aside in her satchel. She then faces each person in your group, with John having returned just a little while ago with your access charms.

In the orange glow of your sister’s flame, each person in your group has a resolute expression on their faces. It’s now or never. No fucking up or it’s over for everyone, permanently.

“May the odds be ever in our favour,” Rose says before all of you split into your respective groups.

»»———— ☽ ————««

As you all went on your separate ways, you tuck the half-moon charm on the inside of your collar. When you look to John for confirmation of his readiness, he meets your gaze with one of determination.

Then, wordlessly, you both take the plunge into enemy territory at the same time.

The rotation is burned into your memory as you navigate the dark with your senses. Every movement and sound you make, you can see in your mind’s map of the place. John you every step of the way, with the ease of someone trained in stealth using his Breath aspect magic.

Failure is not an option here, you all know this. Now that you know what each person has at stake if caught, you can at least count that they’ll take this endeavour seriously. Trust Dave to lead the other group safely.

While your brother has no interest in the magical or the occult, you can sense his potential for it, as someone who is an active participant of both. He could be just as powerful a magician as Jade if he decided to pursue it. As one of the very rare few who has the innate ability to command time itself, the aspect is written within his very being whether he knew it or not.

That’s why, for all your jests of his idiocy, you trust him to be adept at navigating this plan as the other half of it. You’ve seen just how good he can be in a duel when he puts his full effort into it. Even if he doesn’t actively use his inherent aspect, it’s in his instincts. The way he’s predisposed to love music, beats, and patterns. He knows Time well, even if he’s not aware of it.

He’ll be able to sense just the right moment to move the same way he can anticipate an attack and avoid it during a duel. Despite everything, you whole-heartedly trust him.

So why do you still get this uncomfortable dread in the pit of your stomach? Like you’ve just willingly stuck your head into a wild tiger’s mouth when it’s lunchtime?

You’re not nervous, you know the difference between the two. While this whole thing is nerve-wracking than anything you’ve ever experienced, it’s not that. The danger your senses are warning you about is confusing because you can’t quite place what danger it’s exactly pointing at.

There are so many dangers in your immediate vicinity. But you _know_ the danger your senses are telling you to avoid is none of them.

John seems to pick up on your silent distress. He pulls you back into hiding within the shadows of an alcove just in time before the guard passing by sees you. You’ve finally passed all the obstacles to get to the castle walls. All that’s left is to find the entrance and enter the belly of the beast.

But before you can continue, John holds you in place. In the darkness of the night, all you can see is the moonlight’s reflection of his glasses and his bright blue eyes. The concern is written on his face.

“Rose, are you okay?” He asks, a hand on both sides of your shoulders.

“I’m-” You start, only to cut yourself off. You’re inclined to shrug off your meaningless insecurities because there are more pressing matters happening at the moment, but you know that will only worry John more. “It’s… It’s nothing important. Trust me, John. We can talk about it later.”

He frowns at that, unconvinced. But he lets go of you and simply nods at you to go on ahead.

So you keep ongoing.

You have to quietly knock out a couple of guards but you otherwise find not much resistance when you finally find the door. The pair guarding it had the keys, which John skillfully plucked using his Breath aspect as they left to investigate a bit of light trickery you caused to get them away from the door.

When you finally enter the compound, you sneak your way across the long hallways, hiding in the alcoves available when possible. If no one else is in the vicinity to see the act and alert everyone else, you knock out a few of them and hide them in places where they won’t be seen.

It’s a long and painful trek through the hallways, but the inside seems far more sparsely guarded than the outside.

Something about it strikes you as off, but you keep going. You can’t turn back now, not when you’re already this deep in. Besides, you can’t abandon Dave. You’re unsure if he’s sensing the same strangeness about this whole place and retreat. If he doesn’t, you can’t leave him here to be caught.

As you turn the last corner, you spot the little alcove that leads to the spiral staircase. There isn’t a set of guards guarding it like all the previous floors did for their staircases leading up to the next floor.

It makes your stomach bottom out. Something is very _very_ wrong here.

“John-” You start to say but the blue-eyed boy rushes past you to the staircase.

“C’mon, Rose! She’s just up those stairs.” He whisper-shouts to you when he notices that you’re not eagerly following behind his lead. Just then, the second half of your team appears on the other end of the staircase.

Your heart hammers as you rush to meet them halfway where the stairs lead up. But before you can inform them of your intuition, you notice Karkat wrapping a bandage around his left hand. Alarm rises within you.

“What happened?” You ask Dave, who sighs and shakes his head.

“Dumbass stopped a sword coming my way with his bare hands. In the end, Kanaya’s the one who took care of the two who caught us.” He informs you. The troll in question rolls his eyes. Kanaya shoots both of them disapproving glances.

“And you still haven’t thanked me, by the way. If being reprimanded is what I get for saving you, I would have let that purple decapitate you.” Karkat retorts.

“Why in the hell would I ever be thankful for you getting hurt trying to protect me?” Dave easily counters and, for a moment, both are caught off guard by Dave’s reply. The moment is nice, but you’ve all got more important matters to attend to.

“Listen-” You start, only to be cut off by John, who’s already climbing up the stairs.

“Guys! We don’t have time for this! Jane’s waiting for us upstairs!” He scolds before going on ahead and continuing to climb up. Before you can even get an edge in, Dave’s following suit with Karkat just behind him.

But Kanaya stays behind, open concern written on her face. “Rose? What’s wrong?” She asks, but you can’t make yourself look at her face.

“I… I have a bad feeling about this.” You say. A tense silence stretches out between the two of you. Then, you feel her take your hand into hers and you look up at her in surprise. There’s a soft expression on her face, but as she opens her mouth to say something, a commotion rings through the walls of the tower that catches both of your attention. For a split second, you make eye contact with Kanaya.

Then you both rush up the stairs.

When you get to the top tower, you find Dave and Karkat with two indigo guards knocked out at their feet. John has blown the jail door open using his magic, which is probably what the loud boom was about. He is cradling Jane’s unconscious body on the floor of her jail cell.

You rush to his side while Kanaya hangs back with the other two by the stairs to ensure the noise didn't alert anyone else.

John’s weathered expression makes him look older than he is. On his lap is his sister, Jane, still in her royal prospitian attire made of light golden fabrics and laces. She’s covered in green slime and her tiara and glasses are missing. You assume still in the slime of the recuperacoon she was being kept in.

You kneel by her side as John whispers, “she’s asleep.” His delicate tone is the most fragile you’ve ever heard from the blue-eyed wind boy.

He doesn’t have to clarify what kind of sleep he means. But before you can think up an appropriate reply to comfort him, feather-light laughter echoes around the stone walls of the tower.

The cheeriness of it, the delight… Sends shivers down your back. The others look as alarmed as you, eyes searching the cramped tower room for its origin. A cold wind blows through the room, extinguishing all the torches as the shadows it creates coalesce in front of the staircase.

In front of your only means of escape.

The imposing figure of the Empress forms and solidifies in the darkness. The only thing the moonlight reflects off of her black skin is her sharp fangs and cruel trident.

The others stagger back into the jail cell as she stalks closer, laughter turning into a sneering giggle. "Did you reely think you had a chance? I _knew_. From the moment you stepped into my land, my territory, _I knew_.”

Terror grips your body. But hot, burning fury makes you stand up and look at the wicked Empress in the eyes. “How did you know?” You question, surprised by the steeliness of your voice.

She looks genuinely amused by your question. Then, she cackles, her laughter like shattered glass to your ears. But your attention is pulled away from the bitchy witch.

“No. _No_.” You all turn to Karkat as realization, anguish, and betrayal dawns on his face. Proper terror finally overcomes you. “ _Terezi_.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so, so, sorry :'D


	12. The Tower, The Devil, And The Star

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It was all a trap. 
> 
> But an unexpected saviour comes to their aid. Will they make it out of the city alive?

┍━━━━━━━━━━━━━┑

_“Twelve for wealth_

_Of which was stolen_

_Right at the cusp_

_By those you trust.”_

┕━━━━━━━━━━━━━┙

Fucked.

That's what you are. Truly, undeniably, irreversibly, irrevocably, absolutely, totally screwed.

You don’t know what’s worse, coming face to face with the final boss before you’re ready, or the stinging slap of betrayal from your love interest who unknowingly got you into this shitfest in the first place.

As you stare at him in horror, a wildfire of emotion burns through you. But when he turns to look at you first, before anyone else, your heart breaks just a little bit. That’s the moment you finally settle on a single feeling.

This isn’t his fault. And you’re willing to fight tooth and claw to get out here with him by your side.

Your group’s attention is pulled away from this revelation when the Empress of Alternia speaks once more. “Ah, yes. Terezi Pyrope, my favourite judge, jury, and _executioner_. The best prosecutor to come out of her schoolfeed system. Reliable and relentless. Are you surprised at your _dearest friend’s_ betrayal, Vantas? What is this, her second time breaking your heart? Were you reely expectin’ anyfin else?”

Kanaya is quick to come to Karkat’s defence, protectively taking a step forward to put him behind her. “Gloating. Of course, that’s a hobby you’d enjoy. By all means, let’s continue with this farce. You’ve got us! What do you plan to do now?”

The seadweller narrows her eyes, lips curling into a smirk. “Baitin’ me into monologuing like a villain, are we? Nice try, but it ain’t gonna work. I don’t believe I need to anyway, I’m sure Lil miss sunshine has already told you my plans, considerin’ I’ve already gotten away with most of it.”

Rose stares daggers at the Empress, shoulders trembling. From anger or fear, you can’t tell.

“Fuck you, you crusty old fish bitch.” She spats, enunciating every word with blazing contempt. Her open vulgarity catches you off guard.

The Condesce laughs at the insult, looking as if she sincerely enjoyed it. John’s patience is wearing thin though. “If you’re going to kill us, just do it already.” He snaps, teeth gritted as he holds Jane close to him.

The Empress stops, turning her head to the side as a curious expression appears on her face. “I’m not goin’ to cull you.” She states, taking a step forward and gripping the jail door using her free hand. “I want to keep you alive. I want you to watch me as I destroy Prospit and lay waste to your people, all while you're stuck in little cages, unable to do anyfin about it.” She starts closing it, the shrill metallic scrape of rust almost too painful to listen to. “And when I’ve burned everyfin you love to the ground… Then I’ll cull you.”

“Why?” You find yourself asking, proper anger finally filling you up as you know it probably did with Rose. Everything you’ve been through, everything that’s been done to you, your people, and those you love… They all come into sharp focus for you as your hand tightens on the sword strapped to your hip. “Why do all of this? Why go through all this trouble just to destroy Derse and Prospit?”

She pauses, wicked smile broadening. “Because there’s only room for one Kingdom in this fishbowl.” The Empress states cheerily.

But before she can shut the jail door completely, a bright beam of light knocks her to the ground. Dark fuschia lips curl into a harsh snarl as she turns to see who dares attack her.

It’s the troll you least expected to see.

»»———— ☽ ————««

“Feferi!” You exclaim, the first time you’ve ever felt relief at the sight of the Empress’s heir. There are so many emotions running through you right now, but none of them have any place at this moment.

The fuschia troll raises both of her hands, palms out, before crossing her arms and curling her fingers. “Vines of old, vines of new, I call upon thou, I call to imprison now!” She chants as she then goes on one knee to touch the floor.

Thick vines sprout out from the crevices of the stone floor and wall, growing rapidly to curl around the Condesce, constricting her. The Empress growls ferociously as she fights the vines that try to keep her down. “You’re dead fuckin’ fish, Peixes!”

“Well? What are you guppies waiting for?? Those vines won’t hold her for long, let’s go!” The heiress shouts before disappearing down the spiral staircase.

Without wasting another moment, you grab Dave’s hand and pull him to follow the fuschia down the stairs.

Once you’ve reached the third floor, you look back to make sure everyone followed along. Rose and Kanaya are thankfully right behind you while John is using his wind magic to carry the unconscious Jane on a cloud.

But just as you’ve finished your headcount, a thundering explosion comes from the tower. “DO YOUR CODDAMN JOBS, YOU FUCKIN’ LAZY PIECES OF CARP!”

The Condesce has just alerted the entire compound of your presence.

You all burst into a run, with Feferi in the lead. You can hear commotion happening all around as the guards rush to the third floor to apprehend your group. The heavy thumps of their armour send a burst of adrenaline through you.

As you turn a corner, you see troll guards reaching the top of the staircase at the end of the hall. This forces your group to do a one-eighty and try going back the way you came. But when the same sight meets you on the other end of the hallway, the heiress instead pulls you into a room.

The room appears to be a privy, but before any of you can question it, the fuschia touches a series of stones on the far wall that then opens to a secret passageway. You continue to follow her without question. There’s no time for them at the moment.

The passageway Feferi guides you through leads down to tunnels Rose mentioned, a much more effective path than the way you used to get up to the tower. It’s dark but Rose manifests a light orb to help the humans see where they’re going without tripping.

When you emerge from the cramped space, you come up to an obscured pothole near the forest you came from. Looking back at the prison compound, you see guards still scrambling around it, unaware that your group has already left the building. The two light towers are wildly scouring the entire perimeter, looking for a sign of you.

But you can’t stop yet.

You turn to the rest of the group, all of them looking a little worse for wear after that ordeal. You didn’t even notice you kept holding Dave’s hand throughout that whole escape so you silently let go and refuse to acknowledge it.

Not right now.

Feferi is already untying one of the horses you came here with, and everyone follows suit. It won’t take long before they’ll widen their search and the Empress locks down the city to prevent you from escaping. You need to leave, _now_.

As Fef climbs onto a horse, you realize she’s taken yours. “What the hell, Feferi? That’s my fucking horse!”

She huffs at you. “We don’t have glubbin’ time to argue whose seahorse it is, Karkat! Get on or share a ride with someone else!” She commands, offering her hand to help you hop on the back of the horse she’s riding.

Before you can take it though, Dave struts up with Rose’s horse and offers his hand to you. Feferi then retracts her offer and starts to lead the way out of the compound. Looks like she’s hellbent on getting all of you out of here as fast as possible.

You turn to him with a frown. “Move over, I’m riding.”

He scoffs at you, but still keeps the offer of his hand open. “You really want to do this now?”

John passes both of you at that moment. Jane is slumped on the horse while her brother sits behind her, ensuring she stays on by holding the reins on either side of her.

With a resigned sigh, you climb on behind him. When Dave spurs the horse onward to follow the heiress, you briefly ride side by side with Kanaya, who has Rose as her passenger behind her.

Together, you ride into the night. But it doesn’t take long before your horses’ loud galloping through the streets alerts the other guards of the city. You have no choice, it’s the most direct way out of the city.

The buildings pass by in a blur as you hold on tight to the back of the saddle. You’re not about to cling to Dave and have him be a smug piece of shit after this.

The guards try to give chase, but few can keep up as your horses blaze through street after street, deftly avoiding obstacles in your path. At one point, Kanaya even makes her horse jump over a minor blockade like an expert equestrian. When the hell was she trained to ride a horse like that? And how come she failed to mention this to you?

To Dave's credit, he’s not half bad at riding either, considering he’s still in a half avian body.

But it doesn’t take long before the noise you cause starts to wake up the rest of the city. Soon, streets you pass by have buildings where lights and lamps are being lit with many trolls wandering outside to see what’s happening.

But your group pays them no mind, especially not when the palace guards start to catch up with horses of their own. Arrows whizz by you, some barely missing and others coming uncomfortably close to hitting. Firing arrows while mounted on a horse is almost impressive, if not for the fact that they’re trying to _cull_ you.

Feferi slows down her horse just enough to ride side by side with Kanaya and Rose. “Kanaya! We need to split up, we’re too big as a group! I’ll lead the humans through the main street, but you need to divert some of the guards into an alley road! Do you still remember Cerulean Bend?!”

A strike of recognition flashes by Kanaya’s face before she nods in response. Feferi returns the gesture and spurs her horse ahead once more while Kanaya splits off from your group on the next fork in the road. When you look back at the troll guards giving chase, you see some of them split off to follow Kanaya and Rose, thinning the horde that’s still chasing you.

Cerulean Bend… Why does that name sound familiar to you?

As if sensing your actions, Dave addresses you. “How many of them are still following us?” He inquires, as if it’s the most casual and normal question he’s ever asked in his entire life.

You turn back to check before answering him. “Four of them are still on us. Two went off to follow Kanaya.”

There’s a beat of silence filled only by hoofbeats on the gravel road. Then, he carefully hands you the reins as he adjusts his position in an attempt to… Stand? What the _fuck_.

“What the _fuck_ are you doing, Dave?!” You growl, quickly taking the reins before the horse gets out of control. Dave ignores you as he continues to unhook his talon legs from the stirrup.

“Just ride and try not to get left behind.” He tells you, giving you an audacious smirk as he manages to get one of his feet on the saddle of the horse. Then, in one swift motion, he jumps from the horse and takes flight.

You don’t have time to pay attention to what kind of dumbass stunt he’s pulling as you take his place as the rider of the horse. Quickly rearranging yourself to take control of the reins, you slide your feet into the stirrups.

Only when you’re in control do you finally chance a glance back to see what the hell Dave is doing. You look back at just the right moment to see Dave use his talon feet to knock over a wooden lantern post, which falls and knocks over a group of empty festival vendor stands. This domino effect essentially makes the path of the guards completely blocked, preventing them from following your group further.

John seems to have witnessed this too, letting out a loud whoop of victory. It’s then followed by Feferi who probably looked back when she heard the chaos. You can’t stop the sudden swell of pride for Dave at that risky and unfathomably dumb manoeuvre he just pulled.

What a fucking show-off.

The last stretch to the main entrance of the city is relatively easy. When the buildings on either side of you disappear, a wave of relief, unlike anything you’ve known, washes over you.

Soon, Kanaya rejoins your group, lacking her own group of guards. When your eyes meet, all the answer you get is a smug smile.

Your group rides throughout the night, daring not to stop. You ride until you can’t even see the dot of the city behind you. Even then, you continue to ride.

You ride until your horses can no longer run.

Thankfully, by the time that happens, the wind has dried all of the tears you fought so hard to keep from spilling.

»»———— ☽ ————««

Your group sits around the campfire, battered and tired from the hell you just escaped. Your horses lie on the forest floor, fast asleep after consuming a truly astounding amount of apples. The forest clearing is far too small for tents, so your group only laid out sleeping bags.

Your dinner has been meagre, considering all the mouths to feed, but barely any of you even touched your meals. A long and tense silence has punctuated the night, a far cry from the pandemonium you were just experiencing a few hours ago.

Each one of you went about your businesses, and when everything was finally set up, it seems all of you agreed to an unspoken silent treatment of each other as the food was prepared.

But now that that’s over with too, you feel apprehension rise within you as you make eye contact with your sibling across the small fireplace.

Rose briefly closes her eyes, the eyebags under it darker in the orange light. Then, she stands up, catching everyone’s attention. She’s become this group’s pseudo leader.

“I have some questions. I’m sure we all do. And I think it’s important we all get this out of our system before we can continue forwards.” She starts, turning to Feferi. “Do you mind explaining to us, your _highness_ , why you of all trolls, came to our rescue? How did you even know we would be raiding your former castle turned prison tonight?”

Feferi’s eyes immediately turn to Karkat before catching herself and looking away. She heaves a sigh, shoulders slumping as she continues to play with the end of her long, braided hair. “I know you all must be mad at Karkat right now because he led you all to a trap.” She starts, and Rose scoffs. You glare at her and she meets your gaze with a look of her own. It seems everyone’s nerves are fried, and none more so than your sister’s, because for once, she’s terrible at keeping her emotions to herself. “But trust me when I say this, he’s not gillty of anyfin. This was all part of Terezi’s sofishticated plan to keep Karkat, and by proxy, all of you, safe. She worked her way up to be the Condesce right-hand woman precisely so she could make sure notfin like this ever happens if Karkat suddenly decides it was a good idea to come back!”

Rose sighs, sitting back down on her log. “Can you explain to us all what this ‘plan’ is then? I’m not sure who I can trust anymore after all the twists this night has pulled on me. And if it isn’t too rude, could you please drop the fish puns? I don’t believe any of us are in the mood for anything even slightly humorous.” She admits, weariness clear in her voice. While you’re willing to fight for Karkat even against your sister, you can’t deny that what happened was a truly devastating blow to the team’s morale.

John hasn’t said a word since you left the city, and his quietness is starting to worry you. He’s just been looking after Jane in his sleeping bag this whole time, not even part of the campfire. When you look over to the other two trolls in your party, you find Kanaya curled up with her knees to her chest. And Karkat…

It’s the first time you’re seeing him look as despondent as he does now. He’s drawing meaningless scribbles on the dirt with a stick, brows pulled taut into a deep frown. His red eyes reflect the fire roaring in front of him, but you can tell his mind is far _far_ away from the present.

It hurts you to see him like this. So you reach your hand out to hold his hand, and he accepts it without even looking at you, intertwining your fingers tightly together. For once, you think he needs this more than you do.

“I apologize. I’ll try to keep the fish puns to a minimum.” Feferi speaks again. “She had a plan she said would work- and it did! But it relied on nobody knowing but herself, and me, when she eventually asked for my help. I already knew that you-” the heiress takes a moment to point at you, Rose, and John, “were in Troll Territory. A troll from Kanaya’s village came to us not long ago, speaking of human royals who came to her village. I was curious, but it didn’t really bother me because I didn’t know what she’d truly done. As the heiress, I hold no true power nor can I control what she does with the Kingdom. I’m just a glorified pawn to her and her court, meant to be seen and not heard. If I do anything wrong or ask too many questions about how she governs, I could be next on her chopping block!

“But when I heard what she’s truly done from Terezi, as told to her by Karkat, I was angry! And then, for once in my life, I decided it was finally time to be active and do something about this. The Condesce is a tyrant. When I found out what she did, I knew then that she crossed a line. Terezi then explained to me how I could make the wrongs she did, right.” Feferi glances at the sleeping Jane, with her brother dutifully by her side. Then, she puts her focus back on Rose. “This is where Terezi’s plan comes into action.”

Feferi continues to explain. You watch her intently, occasionally glancing at Karkat. You don’t know who this “Terezi” is, but she’s got a lot of nerve pulling this shit. “Terezi knows my ancestor has a big ego, so she predicted that the Condesce would never suspect betrayal when she thinks she’s won. It was essential for you guys to fall into her trap for Terezi’s plan to work. It was dirty, but she used Karkat to get you to the right place at the right time. After her meeting with him, she immediately tattled to the Condesce to make her think she’s still a loyal soldier of hers. Then she came to me that night to explain her plan. She knew it would be virtually impossible for you guys to do what you hope to achieve in the city in just two days, so she devised this plan to give you your best shot at rescuing Jane.

“She was the one to suggest a trap to the Condesce. She convinced her to make the security at the prison just lax enough for you to successfully sneak in. Of course, the Condesce couldn’t resist the suggestion when Terezi emphasized the exciting drama of letting you all think you’ve won, only for Condesce to cruelly rip it away from you at the last moment. The reason behind why she came to me… Well, since I’m her blood, we have the same magical aspect. With the princess of Prospit also fallen to her sleeping curse, I was the only other logical choice to Terezi. I know what’s at stake here, and I know what you need. I want to help you! So did Terezi, if it meant getting Karkat out of harm’s way. She was even willing to let Karkat think of her as an enemy for manipulating him like this.”

At that last bit of the heiress’ explanation, Karkat’s hold of your hand tightens just a bit. If this Terezi is willing to go to this length just to keep Karkat safe, you’re sure they can’t have been “just friends,” as the Batterwitch alluded to.

It reminds you just how little you know of Karkat’s past, just as he knows little of yours. You need to change that when the stakes aren’t quite as high anymore. You only found out his last name tonight, and that’s unacceptable. You want to know everything about him.

When you look back at him, you find he’s paying attention to Feferi now. You squeeze his hand reassuringly, running your thumb over his knuckles affectionately. He glances at you with a thankful smile.

Rose nods, a contemplative expression crossing her features. Then, she sighs. “Thank you for sharing that with us, Feferi. Although, I’m still not ready to trust everyone here just yet.” She says, and you frown at that.

“What the hell does that mean, Rose? Isn’t Feferi, the heiress to the Condesce’s throne, committing blatant _treason_ for us reason enough for you to trust her? What else is she gonna do after this, go back to Alternia where her ancestor will definitely cull her without hesitation?” You question.

A flash of hurt passes by her expression, but it’s gone just as quickly as it appeared. “There’s… There’s one more important thing I need to discuss. After tonight’s revelations, I can’t afford any more surprises in this quest. Not when it could easily cost us everything. Like it almost _was_ tonight.” She starts, opening the small pouch by her waist. She takes out a folded piece of paper and starts to unfurl it. She stares down at it for a moment, as if rethinking what she’s about to do. But then, she turns it around for all of you to see.

Both you and Karkat perk up at the same time when Rose shows you what the piece of paper holds. You immediately turn to Kanaya, who has a grim expression, as if she expected this. Feferi lowers her head, looking like someone caught in the middle of their friends' parents arguing while she’s visiting their home.

Your sibling focuses her attention solely on Kanaya, who meets her gaze without faltering. “Kanaya Maryam. Care to explain why you’ve got a ten thousand bounty on your head? With Karkat, I can accept his status as a fugitive. He’s a mutant and I know your kind does not take kindly to them. But you? I-” Rose stops herself, biting her lip. “I just want an explanation.”

“Hold the fuck on, Kanaya doesn’t owe you shit, Rose.” Karkat loudly interjects for the very first time. Rose spares him an annoyed glance. “She doesn’t need to give you her entire life story just to make you feel better. Granted, she probably should have been upfront about her status as a criminal, but she doesn’t have to tell you why if she doesn’t fucking want to. I doubt fish breath Empress gives even half a shit about us compared to you anyway.”

Rose finally turns her attention to Karkat, properly irked now. “I will not jeopardize my mission under any circumstance, Karkat! I cannot just blindly trust that you two won’t suddenly turn on us solely based on Dave’s word!”

Karkat stands up from his seat and Rose does too, both of them pissed. Jesus fucking christ, what the fuck is even happening anymore? “Karkat-” You start, standing yourself and putting a hand on his shoulder to hold him back. As much as you’re willing to fight your own sister for Karkat, you don’t actually want to see them fight _each other_. Even if Rose is being a complete asshole right now.

But he just shrugs you off, glaring daggers at your sister. “Oh fuck off, Rose! Don’t bring people who aren’t involved into this! Get off your gogdamn high horse and stop acting like you have more at stake here than us. Because guess fucking what, Lalonde? If any of us are caught, we’re all meeting the same fucking fate as you, _your royal highness_ , and that’s under a gogdamn guillotine back at the Capital! So stop treating us like some gog-awful liability who doesn’t have anything at stake here either!”

Kanaya finally steps in, having stood up herself without you noticing. She places a hand on Karkat’s shoulder and forcibly sits him back down, gaze never wavering from Rose. “That’s enough, Karkat.” She tells him. It’s the first time you’ve seen this authoritative side of Kanaya’s. Karkat simply sighs expressively and crosses his arms, but otherwise obliges Kanaya’s order.

You feel awkward at how everything is unfolding right now, so you sit back down beside Karkat. Even John is attentive now, watching the scene with clear apprehension and looking ready to step in if needed.

“You want an explanation? Then I will gladly give you one if that is what it will take for this group to be functional once more. I’m sure none of us wants this mission to fail, all of our lives are at stake after all.” Kanaya states, expression one of resolute resolve. Rose looks bewildered as if what she just did is only catching up with her now. Then, she schools her features and gives Kanaya a cool nod.

“Yes, I am a wanted fugitive. But not by choice. My crimes of slander and rebellion are from someone I once trusted because I was young and naive.” The jade starts, closing her eyes and remembering. “I… Was manipulated by a blue blood. As a jade, my caste is strictly forbidden from leaving the caverns. I was raised by fellow jades in the brooding caverns just outside the Capital, and at one point, I was a model jade whom everyone praised for my diligent obedience to the rules. But I always wondered about what life was like out there. So I snuck out, just once at first, to see it.

“Then I met her. Marquess Vriska Serket. She was one of the nobles involved with the construction of the Condesce statue we saw. She found me where I shouldn’t be, and she coerced me into believing in her. Long story short, our relationship was based on an unequal foundation and she used me for her own means. She brought me out of the caverns to appear as her confidant in noble parties, which in turn, gathered her power and influence for landing a rare caste such as myself as a quadmate. I… Enjoyed that life for a while, and it was during then I found my real passion for creation. But it was never going to last.

“The more I got exposed to the above-ground troll world, the more I started to question the things I saw in the Capital. I did not know of the true inequality our race suffered, and as I learned more, I began to question Vriska’s intentions too. Eventually… I found out the truth. Cerulean Bend, it’s a lowblood neighbourhood named after the highs that govern the sector. It’s where she once lived, and I went out to visit her there one day. I was still properly enamoured with her back then, so it truly broke my heart when I found out who she shared a bed with when I’m not available. A bronze troll who fawned over her, blind to her cruelty. He reminded me of myself, when I first met Vriska.

“I... Broke it off with her after the visit. She threatened to use everything she had on me to make my life hell. And she did. When I returned to the caverns, I found myself demoted to the lowest rank, a janitorial status, and shunned by my entire caste. I tried to fight her by raising awareness of the problems I’ve seen. But all I got was a death sentence at the teal court for crimes of slander against the Marquess’ ‘good name’ and rebellion for ‘protesting.’ But… Before they could condemn me to the guillotine, the bronze troll came to my rescue. He came to Cerulean Bend, where I was being held by Serket so she could keep an eye on me. He swiped the key from her and thanked me for showing the truth of the Marquess. He told me to run. So, I ran. I ran, as fast and as far as I could.” Kanaya opens her eyes again but averts her gaze away from Rose. “That’s the reason why I was branded a criminal worthy of thousands of shillings.”

You watch Rose raise her hand momentarily as if to reach out to the jade, before thinking better of it and retracting it. “... Thank you for telling me. And… I am truly sorry I questioned yours and Karkat’s credibility. Especially after everything you’ve already done for us. I… I am truly, very, sorry.”

Kanaya simply nods her head, still not looking at Rose. “Well, it’s late. I assume we’re leaving early tomorrow to ensure whoever the Condesce sent after us won’t catch up, so I think it’s best if we all go to sleep now.” She states, turning away and heading for her sleeping bag. You don’t miss the quick motion Kanaya does to wipe her eyes, and you’re sure Rose doesn’t either.

Rose watches the jade for a long while with an expression you never thought you’d see on your sister: regret. Then, she turns away too and heads for her sleeping set up.

John finally approaches the campfire and uses his Breath aspect magic to extinguish the flames.

As the embers die down, you feel like the same could be said about everyone else. The only thing to do now is rest. So rest you do.

While this fight is over, the bigger battle is far from it.


	13. The Long Road Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After a harrowing escape from the Alternian Capital, it's time to head home.
> 
> What awaits our heroes at the end of the road?

┍━━━━━━━━━━━━━┑

_“Thirteen beware_

_Victory’s eve is near_

_And the skies look clear_

_But a storm brews in the air.”_

┕━━━━━━━━━━━━━┙

The next morning comes with your party’s energy renewed. The events of last night, while exhausting in more ways than one, seems to be just what you all needed after that close call with the Condesce. Everything has been revealed and everyone got to let go of something in their chest. Or something that sounds vaguely metaphorical and wise.

In any case, there’s only one thing you can do now and that’s to continue forward.

So as you’re all working together to pack up your things and get back on the road, you discuss just that. How exactly you’ll proceed from here on out.

“Well…” Your sibling starts as she feeds her horse an apple from her saddle. “We have to move fast. The Condesce most certainly sent someone after us and we have to stay ahead of them. As long as we follow the route we took to get to the Capital, we should be fine. That said…” Rose finishes adjusting her horse’s saddle and turns to John. He’s securing the still sleeping Jane on his horse using a rope around her waist which he then loops around the pommel.

“Feferi can break the sleeping curse on Jane now. But the Prospitian princess will surely ask dozens of questions, on top of freaking out when we explain our situation and we can’t afford for anything to slow us down.” Rose explains, turning back to you. Feferi only gives you two a nod of her head before climbing up her horse. “We’ll undo the curse when we get back to Derse.”

Then, Rose climbs onto her horse and trots to the front of your group to address everyone. “The plan is still the same as before! But until we arrive back at Derse, we can’t let our guard down. Got it?”

When you look to everyone else, they all simply nod in agreement as they finish up cleaning the camp. John is riding with Jane in front of him on his horse. Meanwhile, Kanaya is riding her horse with Feferi as her passenger. She seems to be avoiding any interaction with Rose and Rose seems to be diligently ignoring this fact.

Whether out of guilt or courtesy, you don’t care enough to get involved. You know Rose will only become doubly insufferable if you try to intervene with whatever is happening between her and Kanaya. And you don’t want to do that to the jade, she’s already suffered through enough crap for your group.

Everyone seems set to go, so you approach Karkat, who’s riding solo on his horse. He raises an eyebrow when you come near. “You’re still a bird, Dave. Aren’t you planning on following by flying like you’ve done up to now?” He questions you.

You shrug and he helps you up onto the back of his horse anyway. “I know. I was planning to at the beginning but then I decided against it. Besides, don’t you enjoy my company, Vantas?”

You don’t even have to see his face to know he’s scowling. The scowl practically radiates off of his body. “Call me by my last name again and I won’t hesitate to shove you off my gogdamn horse and trample all over you, _Strider_.”

When your group is all properly situated on their horses, Rose and John lead the way down the downtrodden road. The pace of the horses is the typical riding pace you’ve been doing this entire journey. Not too fast, but not too slow either. Making your horses run to exhaustion like last night is a terrible choice, but it should have given you enough ground to stay ahead of your pursuers.

It’s been a while since you’ve ridden a horse, excluding last night. The steady rhythm of the horse’s hooves on the ground is calming. Your riding lessons back at Derse feels like a whole lifetime away.

Which isn’t so bad, because you’re actually enjoying your perch behind Karkat. You didn’t fail to notice the fact that he purposefully refused to cling to you when you rode last night. But you think you’re making up for it now.

He’s bigger than you and you never realized how much you like that fact about him. His tendency to slouch is attractive for the first time too. It’s the perfect place to rest your head against as you watch the forest scenery around you pass by. His solid form is comforting and it makes you forget everything that happened. Or everything that’s about to happen.

You’re not sure what’s in store for the two of you when this is over, but you can worry about it when you get there.

“Seriously, you can fly. Why ride with me? The saddle is uncomfortable as it is and sharing it with someone only makes it worse. We have to fucking ride for three days straight like this. My ass already hurts just thinking about it. My ass is _already_ hurting right now.” Karkat grumbles, breaking the serene mood you were just in. You sigh, pulling one hand away from around his waist to flick him on the back of his neck. That only makes him more grumpy though. “Fuck off, blithering fuckass.”

“Do you really hate me that much that you’d rather have extra legroom than enjoy this free cuddling session I’m giving you? Peasants would kill to be in your position, Karkat. Be a little more grateful about your privilege.” You reply jokingly, and he groans.

“I’d let a grubby human peasant kill me if it means the sweet escape from this inane conversation. For once, would it kill you to answer my question without having to go through the many meaningless intermediate contents in between my initial question and your actual answer? Could you do that, Dave? Are you physically capable of giving me a straight answer to a simple logistical question? Don’t you care about my comfort? Because as nice as cuddling sounds, doing it on the back of a horse really limits my enjoyment of it and I’d like for you to get off as soon as possible because I really doubt you did it solely to cuddle.”

You shake your head, settling yourself back down to enjoy this little moment of intimacy with him. “Fine. The reason why I chose to ride with you today may not be wholly because of free cuddle sessions. It makes up about eighty percent of it though.”

“Just get to the point.”

You bite your lip, before sighing and shifting to stare at the back of his head. “I wanted to talk to you. About… Last night. You can probably guess which part of it I want to talk about.”

He’s silent for a long while. At first, you think he wouldn’t answer you at all. You wouldn't have minded. If he doesn’t want to talk to you about it then he doesn’t have to. You wouldn’t press for more information.

But eventually, he does. “You want to know more about who Terezi is, right?”

“Yes.” You answer straightforwardly. See, you can take constructive criticism.

He sighs, shifting in his seat a bit. You adjust as well before settling back down once he’s comfortable again. “It’s only right that you know. We’ve come this far after all, and even Kanaya shared her baggage with the whole group last night. Her… Her name’s Terezi Pyrope, and she’s my… _Was_ my…” He pauses, trying to find the right words. “Friend. Close friend. Once, a long time ago.”

You simply give him a nod as a reply to signal for him to continue talking.

“I… I wasn’t allowed to go out of my hive under any circumstance. Ever since I was hatched, my whole existence has been… Well, some might say ‘miraculous,’ but I hate the insinuation that comes with it. More like artificially lucky. From the caverns to the day I was handed over to my lusus, I was never meant to be alive, and the only reason I am is because of my stupid ties to some fabled ancestor.” It’s clear from the way he talks that he loathes this part of himself. Perhaps he loathes more than just this part, but you’ve never asked because it never felt you had any right to. “I mostly obeyed that rule, because it’s been drilled into me that I could die at any moment. As a troll living in the heart of the city that kills mutants on sight, there was no other way to live until I at least reached my adult moult. But I got tired of always living in fear all my life.

“So I snuck out. Only rarely at first. Then I got bolder the better I got at hiding my true blood by avoiding bringing attention to myself while I was out. I dreamed of becoming like the Threshecutioners I saw in the city and joining the ranks of their elite guild. I saved up money to buy my own set of sickles and trained in the forest where no one could see me. That’s where I met her.” He pauses a long while after this as if he hates thinking about the memories from his past. You can understand, he and Terezi sound like they have a long, painful history.

“Terezi found out my blood colour when I injured myself while training in the woods. Something about sniffing out my prey scent in her territory of the woods. She was a weird troll because she didn’t immediately cull me on sight. She helped me and we got along. We became friends through the sweeps and she coaxed me into seeing other parts of the city, which was ironic because she was blind. She brought me everywhere, even to the most dangerous parts of the city. Parts I would never attempt to pass through. But she protected me and she taught me how to fight. She taught me how to use a sickle properly, along with a common blade. She also taught me how to protect myself without a weapon, if it ever came down to it. She… Taught me a lot of other things too, like reading and writing, since I could never go into the schoolfeed system without being found out. We were… Good friends. That’s what I thought at least.”

Karkat sighs expressively, the vibrations of his voice echoing through his body. It’s comforting, reminding you of how alive he still is after everything both of you have been through.

… You guess you have Terezi to thank for that. Her plan was bat shit insane, but it worked and Karkat is still in one piece with only a cut on his palm as the only injury from the prison heist.

“I guess everything she did makes much more sense now. The reason I live alone in the woods now is because I was chased out of the Capital when they found out what I am three sweeps ago. Terezi came to my rescue just moments before trolls came to my hive, demanding for my blood to be purged. They torched my hive just as I escaped. Then, I ran as far away as I could from the Capital. My lusus… I don’t know what happened to him.” He pauses again and you hold him just a little tighter. “I wondered for a long time if it was my fault if I wasn’t careful enough in hiding my true nature. But during my long travels on foot, I found wanted posters of me in the townships I passed by. The… Sole credit for the troll who found out about me being a mutant was… Terezi Pyrope.”

He doesn’t speak after that, and you eventually work up the courage to speak. You didn’t want to interrupt through his retelling of this story, afraid he won’t want to talk about it anymore if you do. “So… She outed you to forcefully get you away from the Capital? In some misguided attempt at… What? Protecting you? And… She never explained to you why until, well, basically last night?”

He only gives you a stiff nod. You bite your lip, breathing in to steady your emotions. This Terezi is a stranger to you, but you hate how she went about trying to protect Karkat. She burned her bridges with him and made him think one of the few trolls to accept him as himself betrayed him for her own gain. That’s fucked up.

“I’m fine, Dave.” He tells you as if he knows what’s going through your mind right now. “It’s been three sweeps since then. I’ve gotten over her and what she did to me. I just… Didn’t expect to ever cross paths with her again. Besides, I can understand why she did it. I guess I should’ve taken her hints more seriously. As I got older and I got more confident using sickles, I started seriously considering trying to join the Threshecutioner guild. She was always more realistic when it came down to it and she must’ve known that that path was always going to end with me in the gallows. In the end, I ended up being blinder than her in that aspect and the only way she saw to protect me was to drive me out.”

“Still, that’s a really fucked up thing to do to someone. Manipulating you for your own good? I get that she cares deeply for you, but to make you go through all that? That’s just…” You sigh, burying your head into the folds of his cloak. He smells of pine and dried grass, with a hint of campfire smoke. “I’m sorry, I know it’s not my place to judge since I’ve never even met the troll. I just… I hate the idea that she made you suffer for _years_ because she thought it was the only way to protect you. And that she just did it _again._ But then again… I guess if it came down to it, I can understand why she’d be willing to sacrifice everything for you.”

Karkat shifts at that. “Don’t go insinuating stupid shit you can’t fulfill, Dave.” He says, tone dripping with so much sarcasm that even Rose would be jealous.

You huff indignantly at his statement, neck plume ruffling. “I’m truly hurt that you don’t feel like validating my feelings by saying you would do the same for me, Karkat. My heart is scorned and hell hath no fury like a Strider scorned. We’re notorious for perfecting the art of falling dramatically against a chaise lounge and soliloquizing about our romantic woes and sorrows to a rapt audience. Is that what you want, Karkat? Do you want me to loudly proclaim to everyone right now about the thorn you’ve put in my heart?”

“Please skip the part about going on a long tangent regarding your romantic woes and go straight to the part where you fall off my horse.” He scoffs, radiating scowls once more. It makes you smile. “What do you want me to say anyway? That I’d take an arrow for you and tearfully give you a long-winded speech about true love and everlasting romance in my last dying breaths like some repressed noble lady who’s never known an intimate touch in her life?”

“Oddly specific and strangely accurate, but if you could, then yes. That’s exactly what I would like to hear from you, Karkat. I won’t accept anything less.” You say cheerfully, knowing well that it gets on his nerves.

“Well, get ready to be disappointed again, Strider. It won’t be the last time.” He retorts.

“Please tell me that doesn’t extend to the bedroom.” You comment with a groan. He kicks your shin and you squawk in protest.

How you fell in love with him is beyond you. You just know that you did, and no one can change your mind.

»»————- ☽ ————-««

The road back home is long and arduous. Because you’re coming from the Capital and headed directly towards Derse, the road to get there takes longer than it did than when you came from the village going to the Alternian Capital.

The estimated time for you to get back to your Kingdom is a full week and two day’s travel, at the same pace Rose pushed to when you were making the trip to the Capital. If you weren’t hurrying, it’d take two weeks.

What’s worse is supply is dwindling. Feferi was prepared and packed extras when she made her daring rescue of your group. You didn’t have enough time in the Capital to fully restock in between your search for Jane and then the subsequent plan for the prison heist.

Fortunately, the sleeping curse seems to protect Jane from dying because of a lack of normal human necessities. Sadly, that still means you have to split your food and water rations six ways. You’ve never felt more like a peasant than you do throughout this entire adventure.

And that includes your time with Karkat in the middle of nowhere. He's a great cook, you just miss your silk sheets and comfortable cushions back home.

But when you can ignore your grumbling stomach during your night stop, your mind wanders over to your best friend.

John is in the worst shape you’ve ever seen him in. He’s already gone on a long journey with Jade to wake up your sister before going on this one. Yet he’s never complained to you once about the things Rose didn’t ask him about doing. He did as she’s told him to perfectly.

You suppose the reason could be because this whole thing stopped being about him simply helping a friend out. After all the revelations about the Condesce’s plans, Prospit is as involved in this war as Derse. Not to mention the fact that the Batterwitch kidnapped his sister.

Which is precisely why you worry now.

John has lost all the cheer you usually associate with the Prospitian Royal Family. He sits just as quietly as everyone else around the bonfire and you almost don’t ever see him eat. The dark circles around his eyes tell you just how sleep deprived he is and his face looks to be getting more and more gaunt every day. Gone is his youthful boyish face that makes him look younger than he is.

“You should check on him.” The voice that comes from your left startles you for a moment. When you glance over at Karkat, you find his gaze on John too. “You two are close, right?”

“Yeah, we’re close. I mean, not close like that- I mean, we’re just friends and I’m worried for him as a platonic friend, that’s all, I’m not like, staring because of anything else, I just-”

“Dave. You’re rambling.” Your mouth immediately shuts with an audible click. Karkat smirks at you. “I don’t give a shit who you stare at, I know you’re worried. So stop being a creep and go talk to him.”

“Wow. So you really wouldn’t care if I started checking out another hot woodcutter’s ass? I can’t believe you wouldn’t give a shit about that, Karkat.” You retort without even thinking about it. He just raises a brow at you.

“Is that what you were doing on our last day back at my hive?”

You immediately feel heat rush to your face, highly aware of your body’s involuntary response. Like your tail feathers bristling and your plume puffing out. “No.” God, why did that come out all high and pitchy?

He rolls his eyes at you, an amused smile tugging on the corners of his lips. “While I do enjoy watching you effortlessly embarrass yourself, you should go talk to him. I can wait.”

You scoff, but move to do just as he told you. He’s an ass, but you appreciate his sentiment all the same.

Shit. His ass is the last thing you should be thinking about when you’re about to comfort your best friend.

John spares you a smile when he sees you approach and take the empty seat beside him. “Hello, Dave.” He greets. Very formally. It’s worse than you thought.

“Sup.” You mutter, immediately cursing yourself at your forced casualness. “How,- How are you holding up?” You quickly follow up.

His expression falters, polite smile dropping. A sigh escapes him.

“It’s been… Tough. But I’m persevering.” He answers, his reply too short. “I’m fine, Dave. Thank you for wanting to check up on me. Compared to what’s happened to you and your Kingdom… Your family… This is nothing.”

You snort, catching your best friend’s eye. “John, this isn’t about who the Batterwitch did worse traumatic shit to. I can understand the hell she’s put us all through since the whole curse business, and… I just wanted to let you know that you can still lean on me. We’re still best bros, after all. We did a blood pact and everything, so you're like a brother to me. Nothing will ever change that fact.”

He smiles gratefully at you and finally shifts to face you. He’s far more tired than you initially thought, faint stubble already growing around his jaw and lips. Strangely, the rugged outlaw look fits the blue-eyed wonder very well.

“Thank you. You have no idea how much hearing that means to me right now.” He tells you honestly.

You shrug, patting his shoulder good-naturedly. “Hey, that’s what best bros are for. I know we haven’t had the time to talk about other things since this whole shit show started, but I’m here now if you need someone to talk to. Whatever you need, Egbert.”

John smiles gratefully at you, letting out another expressive sigh. His shoulders slump further at the action. “This whole questing business… It’s just been tiring. Tiring in almost every possible way, and I… I don’t feel like I was prepared at all. Or qualified. I did it because you and Rose mean the world to me, and to Jade too. I was prepared to see this through after long conversations with Rose when we were searching for you. But then we found you, and then things happened and then…”

He sighs again, running a sluggish hand through his face. “Then we find out they’ve taken Jane and… And for the first time, it sunk into me how serious this all was. I mean, seeing the state of Derse and the long days I and Rose spent looking for you felt real. But like, it never completely sunk in how dangerously close we were to war, y’ know? Those goals were always in the cards, but… It still felt far away back then, even though back then isn’t even that long ago.” He then goes quiet, staring at the fires that ebb and flow in front of him. “What am I even saying? I’m sorry, Dave. I know I’m not making sense, it’s just… It’s been harder than I anticipated and I feel out of my depth here.”

You feel awkward and tense after his admission, but you can’t say you’re surprised. You’ve been… Feeling all types of ways throughout this entire journey, but having Karkat close to you kept you sane enough to continue. He gives you courage and strength to carry on because you want to believe there’s something at the end of the road for both of you. Being with him… It feels _right_. Like everything just clicks into place, like nothing could ever happen to make it feel wrong.

You don’t want to lose that, because you fear you may never find it again.

This quest has been hard, in more ways than one, for everyone involved. Not to mention what awaits you when you finally return Derse. There’s a dark storm looming in your immediate future. Rose has made her intentions clear about what’s to come after the curse has been lifted.

Just thinking about it and what it could mean for each individual in this quest gives you a headache. So you can sympathize with what John is saying. “I get it, man. I don’t think any of us expected for things to turn out the way they did when fish witch cast that curse on Derse. Not even Rose with her freaky third eye magic. I mean, is anyone ever prepared for a monumental quest to take down a totalitarian monarchy as brutal as Alternia? We may be political leaders with responsibilities to serve and protect the greater good, but we’re also still humans. It’s okay to feel things sometimes.”

John glances your way, a smile cracking through his worn-out features. “I suppose you’re right.”

You return the smile. “Of course I am. I’m related to the Lalondes, remember? Besides, you’ve done great work, John. We wouldn’t have gotten this far without you. Everyone in this group has played a part in our continued success, so you’re far from being unqualified. I never thought I’d say this to you of all people, but believe in yourself, Johnathan Egbert.”

He laughs at your statement, familiar and jovial. “Oh, man. Dave Strider is giving motivational speeches now? What has the world come to?”

You roll your eyes and shove him playfully for laughing at you. “Shut up and give me my mandatory ‘thank you,’ Egbert. Or I swear I will never give a speech to you again. Not even for your funeral.”

John shakes his head, genuine smile lingering. “Alright, alright. Thank you, Dave. Sincerely, from the bottom of my heart. It’s… It’s what I needed to hear, after everything that’s happened.”

You glance over at him, smiling too. “You’re welcome.”

“So…” John starts again, after a moment of comfortable silence settled between the two of you. “You and Karkat, huh? How’s that going? With everything that’s happened, it can’t be easy to go through the proper courtship rituals that come with a relationship.” He inquires, not even bothering to hide the interest in his tone.

You groan, careful when you cover your face with your clawed hands. “Really? After everything we've been through in this epic worthy quest and the great forces of darkness we’ve managed to overcome with our lives and limbs still intact, what you want to talk about the most with your best bro in the rare downtimes we do have is my love life? You don’t want to talk about anything else? Maybe catch up on other shit?”

It’s his turn to roll his eyes at you. “Dave, there’s nothing else for us to catch up with that doesn’t involve your love life. Unless you want to talk about the boring state businesses Prospit has to deal with before we received Rose’s distress signal. Or would you prefer to flex your creative muscles by trading inventive rap insults about the Condesce? In my opinion, she’s not worth any more of our time.”

“Fine.” You say with a sigh. Involuntarily, your gaze finds it’s way to Karkat, who’s found a conversation partner in the Alternian heiress. It seems the trolls all have some connection to one another you’re not aware of. How does Feferi know Terezi and Karkat? How does she know about Cerulean Bend and Kanaya’s past? You’ll have to ask Karkat and Kanaya some-

A snap of John’s fingers right in your face brings your attention back to him. “Earth to Dave? Are you seriously wistfully gazing in your lover’s direction while still in a conversation with me? What happened to your impeccable best bro etiquette?”

You can’t help but flush at that. “Ugh. Please let me live this down, I can’t bear how annoying Karkat will be if he finds out I’m a hopelessly desperate sap.”

John laughs again, and the happiness in his voice feels so refreshing after the long stretches of misery and uncertainty you’ve had to go through. “Are you sure he doesn’t already know that?” He remarks slyly and you give him a pointed glare. “Anyway, you didn’t even answer my question! Last time we got some time alone was back in the village while we were preparing to leave. What’s happened between the two of you since then?”

“Don’t pull your dumb act on me now, Egbert. You already know the answer to that.” You say curtly, but John gives you a deadpan look. You roll your eyes again, attempting to control the heat you feel on your whole face. “Fine. It’s no secret that we… Kissed. You all saw it, no need to overstate it. But we haven’t exactly talked about what-” You take a moment to gesticulate wildly, “ _this_ is. No room to think about it right now, much less talk. Especially when you consider everything that’s at stake here. And I-” You falter for a moment, frowning intently at the dirt and grass beneath you. “I don’t want to make him promise something he may not be able to keep. I’ve been selfish far too many times already. I… I can’t do that to him. Not again. It’s unfair.” You finish with a sigh.

John regards you for a moment before moving to sit closer to you, patting your back reassuringly. “I understand. Just know, whatever you guys are now or whatever you choose to be when this is all over… I support you, Dave. I’ll always support you.”

You manage to throw a weak smile his way. You didn’t want to address the problem that still lingers between you and Karkat because it’s easier that way. You just wanted to enjoy him and your time together as much as possible.

“Thanks, John. Besides, he’s not pushing me away and to me… That’s enough.” You say, shifting to stare across the fire. At that same moment, Karkat turns and catches your gaze.

He smiles faintly at you and the flutter in your chest makes you smile back.

It’s enough.

He’s enough.

»»————- ☽ ————-««

The last night before you arrive at the gates of Derse is more solemn than any other night before. Even more so than the night, you planned to infiltrate the prison compound.

The party has managed to find some semblance of friendship with one another after the initial escape led by Feferi. Over the days spent travelling with only each other’s company, each person seems to have found something to bond over with one another.

Karkat and Dave are obvious and expected. They’ve been practically inseparable after the semi-failed and semi-successful heist.

Then there’s John and Rose. They’re confidants from the very start, and you’d say that John is the closest to being Rose’s second in command throughout this whole quest.

You get along best with Karkat and Dave. On occasion, with Feferi, as she shares a ride with you and it’s hard not to start up a conversation with her. But you’ve also talked to John on occasion. You… Haven’t talked to Rose once since she confronted you with a remnant of your past.

Neither has Karkat, both seeming content to ignore one another’s presence and misgivings for the sake of the quest. You’ve seen Dave check in with everyone though, and you feel at ease when the siblings seem to have mended things with one another.

Although the past few nights has given everyone a chance to bond with one another privately, tonight, everyone is as silent as a mouse.

It’s been a long, tiring journey on horseback. A far cry from the fast-paced excitement you experienced back at the Capital. Perhaps the change of pace contributed to the lethargy your group is experiencing.

But despite everything that’s happened, everything that’s stood in your way… You’re all finally just one step away from victory.

Perhaps that’s why everyone is seemingly content with minding their own business. You’ve talked with Karkat at length about what this means for the two of you when you manage to get him alone. You’ve also talked to Feferi about her feelings on the matter.

Karkat expressed to you that he’s not sure what he’ll do when the humans enact the next phase of their plans, just that he’ll worry about it when he gets there. Feferi is also adamant about not being sure if she’ll side with the humans when war breaks out. But she’s also said that she refuses to sit idly by and let her ancestor conqueror a helpless Kingdom on unfair terms.

Whatever it means when the curse is lifted, you know the trolls in the party will be most affected. You’re not even sure what Rose intends to do with you all when this is over, but knowing Dave, he would never let anything happen to Karkat. That puts your mind a little more at ease.

Your thoughts on the matter are a bit more… Concerned. You don’t know what the other Derse siblings are like, and you have no idea what to expect from them when you undo the curse. They may not be as forgiving or accepting as Dave. Rose… You don’t know what to think of Rose Lalonde anymore.

Speaking of Rose… You find your eyes once again drawn towards the blonde female. Only you find she’s already staring at you across the fire that separates you.

The two of you have been doing this delicate dance for many nights. Speaking with eyes but never uttering a single thing to the other.

But tonight… Tonight, everything seems to be different.

The human subtly moves her gaze away from you to stare into the darkness of the forest before finding your gaze once more. Unspoken words move her lips without a sound. “Later.”

She wants to talk to you. Alone.

You don’t believe this to be a good idea in the slightest. But you want to know what she has to say.

So on the night turns until almost everyone has decided it was time for them to turn in for the night. Rose makes her first move when it’s just the two of you with a quickly fading campfire.

The blonde woman stands up from her seat on the log, moving wordlessly into the deeper into the forest. She doesn’t bother looking back to see if you’re following. You debate staying put and leaving her to wait wherever she planned to take you the rest of the night.

But your curiosity burns and after a moment, you stand up and follow her.

The moonlight is your only guide as you wade through the shrubbery, following Rose’s faint footsteps in the dark. Eventually, her footsteps stop and when you finally make out her lithe figure, you find her staring into a small body of water with her back to you. The silver reflection of the water almost makes her hair glow an ethereal platinum white.

You find yourself awe-struck for a moment until she turns and her sunrise eyes meet yours. A woeful smile graces her black lips. “Kanaya.”

You compose yourself, maintaining the distance between the two of you. “What do you want, Lalonde?”

You see her sigh more than hear her. The singing cicadas and chorus of frog croaking fill the air around you. “I… Wanted to apologize. Sincerely. Personally. For my attitude ever since I met you and Karkat. All I’ve cared about is this quest and I… I know I’ve acted terribly to both of you. I was being unfair, especially after everything you’ve done for us. For me.”

Her admission makes you raise an eyebrow. “I am not doing this for you.” You say, and her expression seems to flicker for a moment. But you can’t be sure, it’s too dark to notice anything other than vague shapes and colours. “Why now?” You add after a moment of consideration.

She steps closer to you, entering into your space. She’s got guts, you’ll give her that. “It’s tomorrow. No more delays, no more complications. It’s tomorrow and I know what it could mean for you and the trolls. I simply wanted to mend things if… If it’s to be the last time we saw each other properly. And… To offer a proposition for you, if you decide to stay.”

You let her words sink into you, a strange uncomfortable twist in your gut. It’s tomorrow, there’s no stopping or stalling any further. You’re glad for the humans, for Rose. You truly are.

But an important choice still awaits you at the end. You already anticipate what Karkat might say. Feferi is a wild card but is unlikely to fight the humans’ battles for them.

You are exactly in the middle of the two.

“I… I appreciate that you thought of me, Rose.” You find yourself saying, mind floating away. “I… I-I need time to think. I’m sorry.”

You start to abscond, but Rose catches your hand. Her touch is warm, unlike anything you’ve ever felt before. Humans and their warm-blooded nature. “Please. Kanaya. Hear me out?” If you didn’t know Rose, you’d mistake her tone as a pleading.

It makes you pause, turning back towards her. She does not drop your hand. “Go on, then.” You finally say with a sigh.


	14. The Devil Herself (part 1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our heroes are finally home and they begin to make plans to undo the sleeping curse on Derse.
> 
> But something worse than they expected has followed them home...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the late update! I was busy with Thanksgiving yesterday ^^;;
> 
> I hope this is worth the wait ;w;)b

┍━━━━━━━━━━━━━┑

_“Soon the skies will grey_

_And roses will decay_

_Thirteen beware_

_It’s the Devil herself.”_

┕━━━━━━━━━━━━━┙

It’s early midday when you finally reach the gates of Derse castle. After solemnly riding through the thorn ridden streets of your home, you finally make it to your end destination.

Everything you’ve been working for in the past few weeks has finally led you here.

As you stare you at the forlorn structure you call home, infested with thick black vines and an ever-present overcast sky, a strange sense of accomplishment washes over you. Not long now, the sun will grace Derse’s immaculate towers once more.

You turn around to face each person in your party, unable to hold back the feverish grin that makes its way onto your lips. “We’re here.”

»»———— ☽ ————««

Rose guides you through the gates into Derse castle. It’s a massive space, with tall walls surrounding its perimeter like a fortress. At the far end is the castle itself, looking as if it’s embedded into the mountains itself. It’s made of grey stone bricks, with spires and towers rising from its main building in an imposing manner. The style strikes you as stern and gothic, amplified by the thorn vines wrapped around the structure and the tattered deep purple flags that sway pitifully in the wind.

The courtyard is in the same state as the rest of the Kingdom: overrun with tall grass and weeds, unkempt and wild. The precisely cut hedges leading up into the grand entrance must have looked beautiful before the blackthorns ripped through it.

What’s most haunting about your slow ride up to the castle is the unconscious bodies that litter the inner courtyard. It’s the same sight that greeted you when you entered the city, and the similarity to deceased bodies gives you goosebumps. From commoners to nobles, guardsmen and servants, they all lie on the ground without any signs of life.

Your eyes drift over to Dave. He’s walking beside your horse, a grim and stormy expression on his face. You can’t imagine what it must be like for him to see his home ravaged like this.

Eventually, your group stops in front of the heavy metal doors leading into the castle. Rose is the first to unmount, each person following closely after. While Rose approaches the door to unlock it using her magic, you stand beside Dave.

He smiles gratefully at you, catching your hand. You intertwine your hand with his as you watch Rose use her Light aspect magic to light up the runes inscribed into the metal door. Within moments, it begins to loudly creek, slowly opening the doors on its own.

When the giant doors have fully opened, Rose is the first to step inside the grandiose foyer. You can’t help but look around as you enter, examining the interior closely. You’ve never even been in a human village, so you can’t help but stare at your surroundings, trying to spot the differences in architecture.

The castle interior matches its outside appearance, only it’s even more purple with accents of silver, gold, and black. It’s a fairly barren space, with more gargoyle statues than you can count. Aside from banners representing Derse’s royal insignias, some tasteful plant decor, and giant pictures of who you assume to be previous monarchs, there’s not much else to admire in the grand foyer.

Two curved grand staircases sit perpendicular to one another, with large wooden double doors sitting in the middle. The windows of the castle are tinted in various shades of purple, from rich violets to lavender pinks. It gives the whole room a moody atmosphere.

Oddly enough, the black vines that snake through the floors and around the walls fit into the overall aesthetic of the castle.

Your examination of the rest of the foyer is broken by a loud squeal. At the top of the right staircase is a dark-haired female, round glasses making her bright emerald eyes seem even bigger than they already are. She’s dressed in elaborate black garb, with red, white, and gold accents. The Prospitian Royal Family insignia is emblazoned on her chest, much like how it was with Rose’s seer outfit.

“Rose! John!” She loudly exclaims, pitchy voice echoing over and over again in the cavernous foyer. When she finally recognizes Dave in his bird form, another shrill squeal escapes her mouth. “And Dave! Thank the gods, you found Dave!”

Before any of you can react, she launches herself from the last few steps of the staircase and into Dave’s arms. He’s forced to let go of your hand to catch the human female, grunting when she knocks the wind of him.

“Oh my gods, oh my gods, oh my gods! You made it! I’m so glad you guys made it back here safely!” The female chants, pure happiness pouring out of her. You find her excitable nature irritating.

When she finally lets go of Dave, she immediately moves to hug John and Rose, laughter echoing around the otherwise quiet room.

“We’re happy to see you too, Harley. But we’ve got more pressing matters to attend to.” Though Rose says this, there’s a smile on her face. The dark-haired human finally lets go of the two humans, seemingly only noticing the trolls in your party now.

“What happened? Jake contacted me after you communicated with him through the crystal ball. How did you get Jane back?” The emerald-eyed woman asks, turning to Rose.

Rose and John share a look before she lets out a sigh. “Come. We have much to discuss, but we can do that once we’ve undone the curse on my siblings. Jade, can you lead us to where you kept them while we were gone?”

“Of course. Follow me.” Jade says with a nod to your group, turning on her heel and leading you through the castle and down into the dungeons.

»»———— ☽ ————««

The Derse dungeons are even more grim and gothic than it’s above appearance. The style is not that much different from the Alternian tunnels you went through back at the prison compound.

It’s made up of mostly dark stone bricks. The only light to guide you in the darkness are the torches on the wall. A damp, mouldy scent hangs in the air, but you suppose that’s to be expected from a dungeon.

“So you found Dave in a small troll village on the outskirts of Alternian Territory? And… Karkat and Kanaya, was it? You took him in while John and Rose were out searching for him?” Jade reiterates as she leads your group through the long and large dark hallways of the dungeon. “And Kanaya, you helped break part of the spell to give Dave back his voice? Am I getting this right?”

She sure is chatty. Thankfully, Rose and Kanaya do most of the talking to explain why trolls are part of the quest to save Derse Kingdom. Thank gog she’s saving you from having to do so. “Yes, that is correct.” Kanaya answers.

“So… Why did you guys join John, Rose, and Dave in their quest then? It can’t have been a very tempting opportunity, considering what's at stake.” Jade comments, taking a moment to glance back at you.

Damn. Looks like you’ll have to talk anyway. You share a glance with Dave, who bashfully shrugs his shoulders at you. You roll your eyes at him and he elbows you. “Well-” You start, but before you can get into it, Jade interjects.

“We’re here.” She says, standing before a heavy metallic door in the same style as the castle entrance. “Rose, you may do the honours.”

With a nod, the blonde human steps forward beside Jade. She pressed both hands with palms open into the door, muttering a few quiet incantations while her eyes are closed. Just like before, the runes inscribed onto the door glow a faint yellowish-orange before fading as the door starts to open.

Kanaya watches with curiosity. “How does that work?” She inquires.

Rose smiles, glancing over at Kanaya for a moment. “The doors were made with protection sigils embedded into them. When they were installed, the spell put on them only allowed Dersite Royalty to unlock it using our unique magical signature. I can cast an added spell that allows other people access to it using their unique magical signature for some time. After that, I can choose to renew the spell or not. But the first spell stays intact unless willingly taken down by one of Derse Royalty.” She explains as she steps down the spiral staircase the door opened to.

“Interesting…” Kanaya comments, following right after Rose. “What about the main entrance?”

Rose leads the rest of your group down before coming into another door similar to the one before. Still made of metal, but without the runes inscribed on its surface. “It works much in the same way. A few others are entrusted with controlling the entrance. The only way you can brute force your way in is by either destroying the spell itself or smashing into the wall around the door, which would be almost as difficult as the first option. Derse castle is made with reinforced bricks. A metal framework coated with cement ensures it’s stability even through the hardest hitting earthquakes.”

“That’s… Very impressive.” Kanaya says as Rose opens the door with a skeleton key. At first, all you can see past the door is darkness, but with a snap of Rose’s finger, the torches lining the room light up. The room beyond the door looks to be a spacious safety bunker, with basic long-lasting supplies included inside. A far cry from the empty cells you passed by on your way here.

One of the walls is lined with a series of shelves containing items meant to last someone a good amount of time down here. A velvet brown chaise longue in surprisingly good condition sits on the other wall close to the shelves. A crystal ball on a carved wooden pedestal sits across the room, perpendicular to the chaise lounge. A rough carpet with muted colours covers the dry stone floor.

But what’s probably most pertinent is the large table in the middle of the room with two sleeping figures laying on top of it. They’re clad in daily practical attire. The male who looks closest to Dave has deeper, darker shades of purple. The female wears lighter shades, almost similar to how Rose looked when you met her, only hers is more pinkish than lavender.

Rose approaches the table, followed closely behind by Dave and Jade. John’s cloud sets his sleeping sister in the chaise lounge with a simple wave of his hand.

“Feferi, can you wake them up?” Rose calls, and the fuschia royal steps forward from behind you and Kanaya. 

She approaches, laying a careful hand over each sibling’s head. Then, she gives a firm nod. “I can. Three people are easy, but the curse on the rest of your Kingdom will take some time.”

Rose sighs, taking a step back. “Just tell us what you need.”

Feferi assesses the room for a moment, finally sitting on the floor in between the table and the chaise seat with her legs crossed. “Just… Stay back. And keep calm. This… Might look a bit distressing for a moment, but trust that I am in control.” She says before closing her eyes and knitting her fingers together in front of her.

Rose nods at your party to comply, and you all do so, giving the heiress as much room as she needs. Feferi begins rapidly muttering in an unfamiliar language, the glow of the torches flickering as she does so. The shadows around the room seem to grow and bend, and you can’t help but share a concerned look with Kanaya.

“I with her blood and life, using the power I hold, call upon the gods of strife, this curse’s end I invoke,” Feferi says out loud, her cheery voice becoming distorted around the edges. The orange glow of the torches suddenly turns bright purple, flaring upwards in a way that should not be possible. 

The humans now look properly alarmed, with Rose taking a step forward. “Feferi?” She calls out, arms raising to reach out to her. But before the human can get any closer, Feferi suddenly stands up in one quick motion.

With eyes still shut tightly, she moves to the chaise lounge and leans down to place her hands on either side of Jane’s head. She presses her thumbs together on Jane’s forehead. “Awaken.” The flames then flare up into a bright green colour, before reverting to purple.

With a gasp, the Prospitian Princess’s eyes snap open, a dazed expression on her face. Feferi is quick to move onto the other two, going through the same motions. “Awaken. Awaken.”

Once the rest of the sleeping figures are awoken from their slumber, the flames on the torches return to normal. Feferi’s eyes then snap back open, stumbling for a moment before catching herself on a shelf.

Meanwhile, the humans are preoccupied with greeting their awoken loved ones. Tears glaze over Rose’s eyes as she steps forward to hug her still disoriented sister.

The eldest of the siblings immediately tenses when his eyes finally focus around his surroundings- particularly you and Kanaya. He jumps back from the table, hand instinctively going to his hip where his sword would be. Should be.

“What’s happening here?” His question is laced with hostility, orange eyes scanning Dave and Rose almost frantically.

Dave purposefully puts himself in between his brother’s line of sight and you. “It’s… Complicated.” He starts, glancing over at Rose. The other older female sibling seems wary too, suspicion written across on her face. Jane clings to John, her face hidden in the crook of his neck. You catch the blue-eyed boy giving you and Kanaya a sympathetic look.

You hate it.

“You better start explaining then.” The orange-eyed human speaks up once more, expression hardening. You can practically see the walls going up. You’ve seen Dave do it.

Rose and Dave nod in sync with one another. “Alright. It’s time you all know what happened.”

»»———— ☽ ————««

Your party moves from the cold dungeons back up to Derse castle. Which isn’t anymore warm and welcoming than the dungeons.

You all decided that the best place to explain this whole clusterfuck of a situation is in the Royal Library and Archives back on the ground floor. Mostly because everything any magical spellcaster needs is available there. Everything Feferi needs to undo the rest of the transmutation curse on Dave.

The Royal Library is just as cavernous and huge as any other room in the castle. It’s near the heart of the castle, with a tall domed roof gilded with gold and purple window panes. It’d most certainly be a sight to behold if the same black vines hadn’t broken through it and continued to snake around the room. 

Tall shelves full of books and tomes surround the room, which is probably to be expected. They’re so tall, you spot a few wooden ladders laid against the shelves on a couple of the aisles. Though a few had been knocked over because of the vines, spilling books and torn papers across the grey marble floor. Rose tries to ignore them, but it’s clear the sight distresses her.

You pity the poor staff the most though. They have to clean up the mess once this curse business is dealt with.

Your group stops near what looks to be a reading spot. It’s mostly untouched by the destructive black vines, finely carved wooden tables and chairs covered by a thin layer of dust.

“Everything you need should be just over there.” Rose tells Feferi, pointing across the room to a fairly empty and secluded spot surrounded by books. An enchantment table sits in the middle of it all, the lavish table cloth calling attention to itself.

Feferi gives a grateful nod to Rose before beckoning for Dave to follow her. You glance between Feferi and Dave to the rest of the party for a moment.

Rose has already seated her siblings and Jane around the table, accompanied by John and Kanaya.

The jade blood catches your eye for a moment, smiling and nodding her head towards Dave and Feferi. You throw her a grateful smile before moving to follow after the other two.

When you reach the spot pointed out by Rose, you realize the shelves in this section of the library aren't filled with normal books. A couple of them are ones you recognize because you’ve seen them in Kanaya’s limited collection of books. But a few of them contain odd items. Some in jars, some just simply sitting out in the open. They’re bones and herbs and spices. Candles and chalk of every colour and variety. Some are more peculiar, like bird feathers, sewing and embroidery tools, and… Haphazardly sewn together dolls? Their unnerving button eyes give you shivers.

“So, how exactly is this supposed to work?” You ask, tearing your gaze away from the occult ingredients to look over at Feferi.

She’s already on her knees, using white chalk to draw symbols and sigils on the ground. “Hm? Well, casting a curse is easy. Undoing its effects or breaking them is tougher. It takes a bit more preparation, depending on what it is and how large the curse is.” She answers, not even sparing you a glance. You share a look with Dave.

“So… What about my curse? Or the sleeping curse put on my siblings? How come you broke that one off with just a few Latin chanting and some spell casting?” Dave inquires.

You raise a brow. “You know Latin?”

Dave shrugs. “Learning the basics of Aspect magic was in our curriculum, and that included a bit about dark magic. It wasn’t my favourite subject though so only a few stray words sounded familiar to me.”

“That’s because sleeping curses are easy. Beginner troll magic users can do it. But they’re only temporary, and while my ancestor’s curse is a bit more… Permanent, they still come easy to me because there were only three people. Undoing it on the entire Kingdom though… It may be one of the hardest things I’ll ever do in terms of magical accomplishment.”

“What should I expect from this curse-breaking then? Like, should I bring in an extra set of clothes or something? Or like- I mean, will I be like-” Dave stammers, gesticulating wildly to himself with his hands. You raise an amused smile at him and he glares at you, red tinting his cheeks. 

Feferi raises her head from her work on the floor to give Dave a blank stare. “What do you mean? Why would you need an extra set of clothes?” She asks, obviously not getting what Dave is trying to communicate. You snicker.

The cursed human sighs loudly, running a clawed hand down his face and shaking his head. “Will I have clothes on when I revert to human form?” He clarifies.

A beat of silence passes with Feferi continuing to stare at him blankly. Then, she bursts into a fit of giggles, worsening Dave’s flush. He pointedly refuses to meet your eyes as you smirk over at him.

“Oh gog, I’m sorry for laughing! That was very impolite of me. Anyway, it’s quite alright, Dave. Your concerns are understandable, but it’s not something you should worry about. When the curse is undone, you should revert to how you were when it was first cast. That includes clothes.” The heiress explains, finishing up the occult circle and picking up a jar of hyssop from the shelf. “The ritual’s almost ready. Could you stand in the middle of the circle, Dave?”

Dave does as Feferi instructs while she picks up a few more ingredients. Among the items she picks up are a bundle of Citronella, a single Avens flower, and a bouquet of wilted roses. Once she’s gathered all the items, she places each of them in a diamond pattern around the corners of the circle. The last one to be placed is the wilted roses, which she burns with a match before placing it in front of Dave.

You watch quietly from your perch on a table, noting Dave’s nervous glances your way as Feferi does her thing. You throw him a smile in an attempt to reassure him.

Once all the preparations have been made, Feferi kneels in front of the burning roses and places her hands flat on either side of it. She begins quietly chanting in the same unfamiliar language she did before.

Within moments, the chalk circle she drew begins to glow a bright silver colour. The smoke from the burning bouquet of wilted roses begins to move with intent, growing bigger than it should considering its source, until it’s completely covering Dave from sight.

“Through my power’s verse, I call upon life to reverse, to rescind the perverse, to undo this wretched curse,” she chants, and the dark fog suddenly begins to glow white just like the markings on the floor. It glows brighter and brighter until you have to shield your eyes from the ritual being done. “From this form to jail, from this form of fear, I hereby set you free!”

When you lower your arms from the blinding light, you find the white smoke slowly dissipating.

And under its white veil is Dave, looking very different from how he looked just moments ago.

He’s no longer covered in shiny black feathers or sturdy sharp talons. Now he’s clad in a princely outfit similar in style to his siblings, only clearly customized to fit him in more ways than one. He wears a rich purple tunic lined with black lace, held together by golden buttons and a thin black belt around his waist. His shoulders are accentuated with golden epaulettes. Black trousers and sleek black boots with gold accents pull the whole look together.

When he finishes marvelling at returning to his original form fully clothed, he meets your eyes. And he smiles.

Dear fucking gog, he looks like the kind of prince charming you only read about in books. What the hell have you gotten yourself into?

Dave steps out of the ritual circle and approaches you, eyes never wavering from yours. You can’t seem to take your eyes off of him either.

Only when he stops in front of you do you release the breath you didn’t even realize you were holding. He crosses his arm, smirking smugly at you. “You can pick your jaw off the floor now, Karkat.”

You immediately roll your eyes and mirror his stance. “Of course, you had to ruin the moment by speaking. For a second there, I almost bought into the fairytale fantasy of the monstrous beast turning into a perfect prince charming. Thank gog you snapped me out of my senses by reminding me that nothing actually changes when it comes to you.”

“Were you really hoping I’d change into your idea of a perfect prince charming, complete with a ready-made fairytale ending?” He quips sarcastically, an eyebrow raised.

You meet his eye again. “No.” You say, features softening.

Dave stares at you for a long while, red creeping up around his ears. “Only you can spin pointing out how imperfect I am into a compliment.” He grumbles.

It’s your turn to smirk. “Would you want me to change into someone who can’t insult you without turning it into a compliment in the same sentence?”

He punches your arm playfully, chuckling. “I get it. You made your point, stop being smug about it.”

“That’s never stopped you before.” You scoff. Dave shakes his head at you, moving to lean against the table beside you.

“So… What do you think?” He asks you, voice uncharacteristically bashful. You raise a brow, eyeing him up and down.

“What do I think about what?” You ask with a smirk despite knowing what he’s looking for. Teasing him is just fun.

The blond human rolls his eyes. “You know exactly what I mean, jackass. I want to know what you think of me. Now that I’m… Y’know. Not half-bird.”

You’re about to spout out a snarky remark when a loud crash from somewhere just beyond the Library reverberates around the room, the floor shaking faintly under your feet.

You share a look with Dave before turning to the others in the library in alarm. Everyone looks just as shaken by the noise.

“What was that?” Jane asks, fear lacing her voice as your trio rejoins the rest of the party.

Before anyone else can even suggest an answer, a chilling voice echoes from the hallways leading to the grand foyer.

“Come out, come out, wherever you are!” The Batterwitch’s gleeful voice rings around the cavernous castle, repeating again and again. You feel your heart drop to the soles of your feet. “We can do this the hard way, which I reely wouldn’t recommend. Unless you want me to tear this shit hole down brick by brick just to find your meddlesome posse! Or we can do this the easy way. Your choice! Just don’t take too long mullin’ it over, or I’ll make the choice for you!”

Rose looks the most rattled. “She’s here.”

“But she can’t be.” John interjects, expression a mix between confusion and dread. “Right? She can’t be here with a whole army already, right? Aspect magic can do a lot of things, but it can’t completely break the laws of space and time.”

“There’s only one way to find out.” Dirk states grimly, already looking towards the entrance of the library.

Each of you looks at one another uneasily.

“We should arm ourselves. Who knows what awaits us in the foyer.” Kanaya suggests, voice composed and even. But the fact that she’s suggesting possibly raiding the castle’s armoury says a lot about what she expects from the Condesce crashing in.

“Smart.” Dirk says, nodding in the direction of Kanaya. “We have to be quick though. We don’t know how long she’s willing to wait, and we can’t afford whatever the consequences are of delaying the confrontation with her.”

Everyone seems to reluctantly voice their agreement to this plan. There’s a beat of silence where each of you seems to eye the other warily.

“It’s not much of a plan, is it?” Dave says, voicing everyone’s doubts.

“It’s better than nothing.” Rose says, a certain tinge of resignation in her tone.

»»———— ☽ ————««

A quick trip to the armoury allowed you to pick up the weapon you’re most comfortable wielding: sickles. Everyone else does the same, picking up their preferred weapon of choice. Which happens to just be a bunch of swords for most of the Strilalondes. Only Rose exchanges the sword she already had for a pair of two long and sleek white wands.

Only Jade and Jane did not pick up a weapon to use. Probably because they’re more comfortable using their magical affinity rather than relying on normal weapons. John picks up a blunt battle hammer and Feferi is prepared with a smaller double-ended trident strapped to her back. You’re guessing their preferred fighting style is a mixture of both magic and weaponry.

You only manage to catch a moment with Dave as everyone files out of the armoury after picking their weapons.

“Dave-” You say, only to falter when he turns to face you. Your breath gets caught in your throat, mind blanking on what you should say before marching face-first into your possible doom. You can’t even wrap your mind around losing him after everything you’ve been through.

How do you say goodbye, without saying goodbye?

But it seems you don’t need to.

Because before your mind can come up with anything even halfway decent, Dave presses his lips against yours. It’s quick, but the pressure he puts into it tells you everything you need to know.

“Just… Don’t say anything, alright? I don’t want to jinx it before we even face her.” He tells you, an urgency in his voice. “We can talk later. Because I want us to have a ‘later.’ I don’t want closure. I want something to fight for.”

You don’t have anything to say. So you don’t say anything. You just lean down to kiss him again, just as he did with you.

“Yo, lovebirds. As cute as it is to see my little brother finally macking on a guy, we have an evil fish tyrant to fry. Can you two save it for later?” The older Lalonde pipes up, poking her head through the door.

Dave immediately turns fifty different shades of red. He quickly turns on his heel and marches out of the armoury, pushing Roxy out of view. “Yeah, yeah. Let’s go deal with her quickly then.”

You find yourself smiling fondly as you follow them out.

You’re both going to make it out of this alive. Or you’ll die trying.

»»———— ☽ ————««

By the time you and Dave rejoin everyone in the foyer, the unmistakable figure of the Empress stands in the middle of the room… With a huge hole in the wall behind her, pieces of brick and stone littering the floor. The magically locked door is untouched, proving its ability to withstand the Condesce. Sadly, every other part of the entrance isn’t as fortified against her as Rose probably would’ve wanted.

“My my, what poor manners y'all have. Making your guests wait this long for your arrival? Very bad hostin’ etiquette.” The Condesce speaks. She had an air of nonchalance in her voice. She doesn’t look all that different from the last time you’ve seen her. She’s still in the same full-body dive suit she was in when you first ran into her, but this time, she’s fully clad with golden jewelry, along with her crown headpiece. Her double-sided trident gleams threateningly by her side.

“What do you want?" Rose steps confidently forward, but her whitened knuckles around her weapon say otherwise. "You didn’t have to waste time taunting us out of hiding. So why did you?”

The Empress steps forward as well as if answering the challenge Rose just issued. “I’m here to make a deal ya can’t refuse.”

Dirk laughs derisively. “You want to negotiate now?” He barks out, taking a step forward beside Rose. “A little too late for that, your royal fishiness.”

The Condesce shrugs. “It looks better in the history books if I gave you a choice on your impending doom.” She says flatly. “Surrender now. Or I burn this whole coddamn place to the ground.”

“Wait.” John suddenly interjects, frowning. “You said 'guests'? Who else is with you?” He asks.

The Condesce smiles. As if on cue, two figures emerge from behind her impossibly huge hair.

The first is none other than Eridan Ampora, who stands on her left, clad in full body armour. You’ve met him before. A high ranking violet official with a reputable lineage that allows him to be a part of the Empress’s closest inner circle. As Feferi’s ex-moirail, you think he’s a little too whiny to be as intimidating as the other violet blood you’ve encountered. Despite that, his fighting prowess isn’t something to be underestimated. After all, the most cut-throat cobalt you’ve had the displeasure of knowing considers him equal enough to her that she engaged in a kismesissitude with him.

Speaking of… Vriska Serket herself stands to the right of the Empress, decked out in her customized Marquess outfit with a sharp cutlass hanging on her hip. An accomplished cerulean, she earned her reputation as an unyielding dueler and found fame and success through it. She easily rose through the ranks in the Empress’s private court. You’re not surprised to see her standing by the Empress, considering the Batterwitch would’ve wanted to bring only the best of the best.

Vriska’s wicked grin seems to widen when her eyes land on you and Kanaya. From the corner of your eye, you see her tense up. You shoot her a concerned look, but she quickly shakes her head at you.

Before any of you can say anything about the Empress’s entourage though, Vriska says something that makes your blood run cold. “Don’t be shy now, sis. Come get a load of this action!”

A third figure emerges from behind the Condesce, striking in bright teal and red.

Terezi Pyrope.


	15. The Devil Herself (part 2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Condesce has crashed into Derse with a distressing revelation!
> 
> Things are looking dire for our protagonists. Will they be able to pull through?

Terezi Pyrope stands beside Vriska Serket, Eridan Ampora, and the Condesce.

You fail to stop yourself from taking a step forward and trying to reach her. “Terezi-”

But Kanaya holds you back, a firm hand on your shoulder. The Empress raises a hand and swishes her pointer finger side to side. “Nah-ah-ah. I would think twice before you take another step.”

Terezi continues to watch over your group, a passive expression on her face. Her red eyes stare beyond any of you, eyebrows pulled tightly together. Her nose wrinkles and her pursed lips turn more severe.

She’s assessing the room and everyone in it.

“Now then, shall we talk?” The Batterwitch continues, casually twirling her trident with ease. “Here are my terms for your surrender: the entirety of the remainin’ Derse and Prospit Royalties are to step down from their power and relinquish all material and monetary goods to the Alternian Empire. Do this, and I will undo the curse on your people and I won’t have to forcefully invade Prospit. We can do this the easy way. Or we can do this the hard way, where I’ll have to cut down each and everyone presently conscious in this castle. Then- I’ll scorch your lands, and everyone in it, leaving a blank space for me to refill. Your choice.”

Everyone is tense, hands on their weapons, ready to unsheath when given the signal. The Strilalondes share an unspoken conversation for a minute or two.

Then, Dirk speaks. “You and what army?” He questions, tone taunting. The Condesce laughs heartily. She stops spinning her trident and slams it onto the marble floor with a resounding thud. You see faint spiderweb cracks on the floor.

“You think you can take all of us with your measly rag-tag group of rebels?” She counters, incredulity loud and clear in her tone. “That’s cute. But the bravery of fools is bravery nonetheless, so I’m awardin’ you half points for your incredible stupidity.”

You can see the eldest Strider getting ticked off by the Empress’ taunting. It’s an imperceptible shift in his expression, but you’re able to take note of it. You’ve spent enough time trying to decipher Dave’s unreadable expression to pick up on it.

“Careful with that hubris of yours, Condy. It’s a classic flaw of many great conquerors before you. And guess what? The human race has survived this long alongside yours. I wonder how that happened?” Roxy chimes in, crossing her arms across her chest.

The Empress doesn’t look even the slightest bit fazed. “I know. That’s why I came prepared.” She answers cryptically, raising her trident in the air. “Resurgemus!”

The ground begins to shake violently, forcing your party to find handholds to balance themselves with. Meanwhile, the Empress and her cohorts stand tall against the quake, seemingly unaffected.

“What the hell was that?!” Rose shouts, raising her wand to point at the Condesce.

“No… That can’t be… You can’t!” Feferi interjects, her hand pressed to the floor after the shake knocked her down to her knees. The Condesce simply laughs maniacally.

“What is it?!” Kanaya questions as she rushes to Feferi’s side to help her up as the ground continues to sway beneath you.

The heiress’ eyes never leave her ancestor’s as her expression grows more horrified by the second. “She- She’s summoning an army from the void- Oh my gods, she’s raising an army of the _undead_.”

Jane looks just as horrified as Feferi explains. “But _how_?! No mortal can generate enough magical Life energy to summon something as big as a _whole army_ of the undead! It’s not possible! Raising the dead requires you to give a bit of your own life to reanimate them! And the longer they’re alive, the faster they drain your Lifeforce! She should be _dead_!”

Feferi shakes her head vigorously. “My caste- We- W-we’re only on top because we have a deep connection to the sea- to a great beast said to originate from the void itself- a guardian-”

“That’s right, my dearest descendant.” The Batterwitch interjects, wicked smile showcasing large and threatening incisors. “Our blood is the ruling class because we have an inherent advantage when it comes to dark magic. The Gl’bgolyb is an emissary of the Horrorterrors from the veil, a realm beyond the one we occupy. With a connection like that… It’s easy to request _assistance_.”

“But how?! Why would they lend you this much power?! You-” Feferi shouts, only to abruptly cut herself off. “You made a deal with them, didn’t you?”

Again, the Condesce laughs. When she brings her trident to rest back on the ground, the shaking stops. “An army is rising just beyond your city walls, Strider. Lalonde. What will you do now? Do you still think you can fight us? Fight _me_?”

Dirk’s jaw is set tightly, glaring daggers at the Empress. If looks alone could kill, you think the Empress would’ve been dead a while ago.

Jade suddenly steps forward, pulling the two siblings close. She speaks just loud enough for you to hear. “We can fight this.”

“How?” Dirk inquires, an edge to his tone.

“We need to plan- away from the Condesce’s prying ears.” Jade answers quickly. Rose briefly makes eye contact with her brother before nodding. She steps away to face the Empress.

“Give us a moment to deliberate. This is an important decision.” Rose says. The Condesce narrows her eyes.

“You have five minutes. I’m not giving you a warning when your time’s up.” She smiles. “Let’s hope you’re good at keeping time.”

»»———— ☽ ————««

Your sister and brother are quick to lead your group back into the library to ‘deliberate,’ but as soon as you’re out of earshot of your enemies, Jade starts to talk. You don’t have time to waste before the Condesce decides to attack.

“Feferi, you said she made a deal with the horrorterrors to gain the magical power she now has, right? What do you think is the deal she made, and how do you think it works?” Jade questions, speaking hurriedly as your group stands around in a circle.

“Um, I’m not completely sure what kind of deal she could’ve struck, but I’m guessing it has to be something that would benefit the horrorterrors as well. They wouldn’t just grant this massive amount of power to anyone without some sort of condition or clause that benefits them as well. Dealings with the horrorterrors always come with a price. How heavy that price is dependant on how terrible a favour you ask of them.” Feferi explains, speaking just as swiftly as Jade.

In your head, you can almost feel the seconds tick down with every word that’s spoken.

“You’ve gotta have a plan cooking up in your brain, right Jade?” Roxy inquires, looking towards the green-eyed girl. Harley bites her lip.

“I… Have an idea.” She starts.

“Spit it out then, we haven’t got much time.” Jane presses.

Harley sighs. “If what you say is true, Feferi, then losing this battle with us has got to have some heavy consequences for the Condesce, right? She was confident enough in her position to take the deal with the horrorterrors because she believes we’ll fold in the face of her insurmountable force, right?”

Feferi nods. “It’s likely. She’s already used a bit of their power to put all of Derse in a permanent sleeping state. If we somehow manage to win against all odds… Well, my guess is that the horrorterrors would take swift retribution against her for failing before she can repay them properly for the favour she requested.”

Jade closes her eyes for a moment. A beat of tense silence passes by as your group stares in anticipation. Your hands find Karkat’s wordlessly.

“I can put up a protective barrier to stall the army from invading Derse.” Jade announces, a steely resolve on her face. You find yourself lighting up as you make eye contact with your siblings. “If we take down the Condesce first, everything else is bound to crash down like dominoes, right? Without the horrorterror’s help, the army will return to the earth?”

Feferi’s expression brightens. “Yes, that should be correct. My ancestor is the link- if we defeat her, the horrorterrors are bound to turn on her if they believe she’s a bigger risk than she’s worth.”

“How long can you keep the barrier up?” Surprisingly, Kanaya chimes in.

Jade bites her lip and casts her gaze on the floor. “Ten minutes? Fifteen? Twenty? I don’t know how long I can keep them out without…” She replies, voice trailing off. Your stomach lurches at what she’s insinuating.

Kanaya’s eyes flit over to Karkat. “Kanaya…” Karkat says, a growl just beneath his even tone. The jade blood shakes her head softly.

“Let me do my part, Karkat. If this is our best shot at finally ending it all… Let me do my part.” She says, and Karkat looks away, a stormy expression on his face. You lightly squeeze his hand and he returns the favour.

Kanaya steps forward. “I’m a Space aspect user too. My use of magic tends to specialize in support or healing, but I can help by strengthening your barrier spell to ensure it lasts for as long as possible.”

Jade grins, pulling Kanaya to her side. “Thank you. You didn’t have to go this far for us and I barely know you, but thank you. I hope we get a chance to get to know each other better after this!”

Then, Jane steps forward as well. Her expression is still laced with concern and fear, but there’s determination in it now too. “I can start undoing the sleeping curse on the Kingdom. Revive your guardsmen and soldiers. We may be underprepared, but it still raises our chances of winning the battle when Jade and Kanaya’s barrier fails and the army starts their march into the castle. If nothing else, it buys us more time to defeat the Empress without having to divide our focus into fighting off an entire army.”

Feferi steps up too, standing beside Jane. “I’ll help her speed up the curse-breaking. The rest of you can focus on defeating the Condesce.”

“You two will have to be somewhere safe, somewhere where you can’t be interrupted while you undo the curse.” Dirk says, directed towards the two Life aspect users.

“The dungeons are easily the easiest defendable part of the castle.” Roxy suggests.

“Feferi, you remember the way down, right?” Rose asks. The fuschia heiress nods. “Then give me your hand, both of you.”

The two women comply, holding out their hands to Rose. She traces a runic symbol with her pointer finger on the palms of their hands and mutters a quiet chant. A faint white symbol appears on their skin, looking like a scar.

“There. That should give you access to the lowest level of the dungeon where Roxy and Dirk were being kept.”

“This is nice and all, but it hinges on the fact that the horrorterrors will revoke the power they gave the Condesce when we defeat her. How sure are we that it will actually work?” Karkat voices. The mood in the room dampens considerably.

Feferi’s once hopeful expression turns grim. “... We have to kill her.” The silence that comes after punctuates her point. “The horrorterrors need a host to interact with our realm. As I said before, she’s the link. If we _sever_ it…”

Defeating the Empress of Alternia is one thing. Dealing a killing blow is another.

Dirk suddenly puts his hand forward. “Whatever it takes.”

A beat passes. Your siblings follow suit, putting their hands over top Dirk’s. “Whatever it takes.”

Soon enough, everyone is echoing the same sentiments and adding their hand to the pile. You meet Karkat’s eye as you do the same, repeating the sentence. “Whatever it takes.”

The troll sighs exasperatedly but eventually puts his hand over top yours, eyes never wavering from yours. “Whatever it takes.”

You have a feeling that the two of you hold a different meaning behind the words compared to everyone else.

It fills your chest to the brim with happiness at the collaboration between everyone. Everything you’ve been through… Everything you’ve done… You wouldn’t trade it for the world.

But amidst the warmth you feel is a cold towel of dread as you feel the seconds continuing to tick by. A burning and tingling sensation in your extremities. Time is running out. Tick-tock. Tick-tock. Tick-tock.

“Guys, we don’t have much time left. We gotta do this. Now.” You interject, the hopeful moment you were all just having getting dulled.

Everyone disperses from the circle to say a few last words to those important to them.

John hugs his sister close before she leaves with Feferi to descend into the dungeons. “Be careful, alright?” He tells her. Jane giggles.

“I should be the one telling you that. You’re the one in the front lines, John.” Jane replies, expression turning sombre as she stares at her brother fondly. “Don’t do anything rash.”

John smiles. “I promise.”

You approach him once Jane has left with Feferi. Jade joins you shortly after. “So. The final fight, huh?” You say awkwardly. So much has happened, so much has changed since you last saw your two best friends. And now, everything hangs by a thread. You’re not sure what’s the right thing to say. 

You’re afraid, but now isn’t the time for it. Not when it could get you killed.

Jade bear hugs you in response, and John quickly joins, turning it into a group hug. You grunt in surprise before it turns into terse laughter. Your heart feels heavy in your chest at the thought that this could be the last time you ever hear or touch them again.

“Stay safe out there, alright Dave? You’re not allowed to die at the hands of the Condesce!” Jade states, hugging you so tightly it starts to constrict your breathing. John laughs and slowly eases her grip on you.

“I could say the same to you, Harley. Don’t overdo it trying to be all noble and shit. You’re not allowed to die heroically sacrificing yourself for the greater good. Not before me, at least.” You tell her as she pulls away to hold at shoulder’s length.

You can see the tears in her eyes, but she holds them back and forces out a cheery laugh. Then, she turns to hug John next. “You too, you big dumbo. You two better watch each other’s backs when you face off with her.” She mutters to the blue-eyed wonder.

John consolingly pats her back. “I promise.” He pledges.

Once they’ve parted, the rest of the group facing the Empress joins you. Roxy snakes her arms around yours and Dirk’s shoulders. “My favourite bros. Facing off against an evil tyrannical fish monarch and her evil undead army together. Can I just say? This has been my favourite family bonding activity we’ve ever done.”

Rose fondly rolls her eyes as she stands just a little off to the side. “For once, I’d rather reinstate family game night than ever do this again.” She exclaims sarcastically.

You chuckle while Dirk manages untangles himself from Roxy’s tight grip. “We can get all mushy and sentimental when we’ve actually won. Now c’mon, we’ve got a Kingdom to save.”

And with that, everyone heads off from the library to end this once and for all.

You only manage to share a significant look with Karkat before you’re back in the foyer, facing off against The Empress and her lackeys.

Your only regret is not kissing him longer when you had the chance.

»»———— ☽ ————««

The eight of you step up to the center of the foyer, facing down against the final four obstacles in your quest.

To your left stands Kanaya, Roxy and Jade. To your right is Dave, Rose, Dirk, and John. You all stand in a line, hands on your weapons, waiting for the signal for them to be drawn.

“Where’s the last two of your little band?” The Vriska sneers, narrowing her eyes to suspicious slits.

The Condesce holds her hand up and the blue blood shuts her trap for once. “I take it you’ve come to a decision?”

Rose steps forward, face curled into a scowl. “We will not surrender to you.”

The Empress’s face hardens. Black tendrils begin to swirl around her, like black smoke rising off of burning charcoal. She slowly rises in height, her pitch-black hair twisting like black tentacles coming to life, lifting her off the ground.

“ _Then so be it_.”

In a swift flash of black, the Batterwitch launches herself at Rose with the help of her prehensile hair, crashing straight into the double doors at the center of the two staircases.

The room breaks into chaos.

You see Jade quickly fling away an advancing Vriska before continuing to run outside of the castle through the hole the Condesce made with Kanaya following closely behind. Before the blue blood can get up, Roxy rushes her with a battle cry, the sharp sound of metal against metal echoing around the room as their swords clash.

When you turn to back, you find your eyes briefly landing on Dave. He’s frozen in place, eyes darting between where the Condesce and Rose disappeared into and where you currently stand. You grit your teeth.

“Go help your sister!” You shout to him. John’s nowhere in sight, presumably already helping Rose with the Condesce.

Dave gives you a firm nod and you watch him disappear into the next room, where you catch a brief glimpse of the fight happening with the Condesce.

When you turn back, you find Roxy and Vriska embroiled in an intense fight. Dirk is similarly facing off with Eridan, their movements too fast for your eyes to keep up with.

Meanwhile, just a few paces in front of you is Terezi, expression dark. She stands with a perfect posture, her red dragon cane poised in front of her with both hands resting on top. “Don’t make me do this, Karkat.” She tells you, her usually sharp and strident voice lacking its edge.

You can feel your heart thundering in your chest. Thundering in your ears. “ _You_ don’t have to do this, Terezi.”

She raises her cane, holding it horizontally with stiff arms. “It’s not about what I _want_. It’s about what I _have_ to do. I have my duty. I tried to keep you away as much as I could. But now… Now, you’ve left me with no choice.”

Your hand tightens around the grip of your sickles. “You’ve always had a choice, Terezi. You didn’t _have_ to be this. Even when everyone and everything around you tries to convince you that you don’t, you _do_.”

Her cold exterior seems to falter for a moment, red eyes glassy. But before you can continue trying to talk her out of it, she unsheaths her sword from her cane and rushes at you.

You only barely manage to bring up a sickle to block her blow, the momentum pushing you back as Terezi lets up.

She gracefully fixes her stance, sharp sword balanced so perfectly it cuts her blank face in half. You grip your weapons tightly, adjusting your feet into a solid defensive stance. You know you can get through to her. She still cares. After all this time, she still _cares_.

And as long as she cares, you refuse to give up on her.

Everything is still for a moment. You can almost believe it’s just the two of you in the foyer.

Then- you clash.

»»———— ☽ ————««

You enter the throne room just in time to witness your sister being choked under the Condesce’s foot. John quickly sends out a massive wind blast from his battle hammer and knocks her away just enough for Rose to escape.

While John keeps the Condesce momentarily busy, you rush to Rose’s side. You help her stand up as she coughs roughly, a hand around her already bruising neck. “What’s the plan here?" You ask her.

“Just-” Her answer is cut off as the Condesce blasts you with a black bolt of magic from her trident. You manage to roll away just in time while Rose defends herself with a white magical barrier, the black bolt immediately exploding violently when it makes contact with it.

“Just attack her!” She yells, flinging blindingly white rays of light from her wands at the Condesce.

So you do.

But despite having two magic users teaming up on her, the Condesce manages to deflect each attack with ease, as if she could sense exactly what and when the next attack will be. It doesn’t help that her ridiculously long hair acts almost like an entity of its own, keeping each of you busy when one of you is casually tossed into a wall.

You would think the easiest way to defeat sentient hair would be to cut it. But even that doesn’t work, because some magical barrier seems to prevent you from cutting cleanly through it.

You’re the only melee in the group, and even getting close to her is hard. Flash stepping barely makes you on par with her speed, and when you think you manage to pierce through her defences, your sword is met with her trident.

Every second that ticks by feels like an hour of you fighting with all your might. It only gets worse when she starts to use your attacks to accidentally hit each other.

Like when you charge her from behind while John is slashing at her with sharp winds, only for her to suddenly side step and lead you to crash into him as he’s summoning another attack. Or when Rose shoots her magic light beams but the Condesce deflects by spinning her trident swiftly, causing it to be redirected your way and clipping you on the shoulder just as you avoid her tentacle hair from disarming you.

The problem is that your attacks are uncoordinated and unplanned. Each of you just attacks whenever you can before the Condesce can usher in a fatal blow to one of you.

When barely five minutes have passed, you’re all already in terrible shape. John has been tossed and swatted all around like an insect since he’s the only one who can fly freely. Meanwhile, Rose is battered with cuts and burns all over her from the Condesce’s magical attacks. You’re not faring any better. You can’t see yourself, but you can feel the fresh blood and the aching bruises on your skin.

Yet, the Empress stands tall with her prehensile hair, not even a single scratch on her.

You can’t keep this up much longer. Not without the Condesce dealing serious damage to one of you eventually.

You just hope with all your being that the others in the foyer quickly finish up with their own battles to help you put an end to this.

»»———— ☽ ————««

Just beyond the castle walls, you and the jade blood stand in front of the tall iron gates at the entrance into the courtyard. Strong gusts of wind whip your black hair all around you.

When you look up, you see the overcast sky has only gotten worse. Strange dark swirling clouds are forming above Derse castle with flashes of purple lightning lighting occasionally blinking inside of it. The air out here is so thick with miasma it almost physically makes you sick. Even if you didn’t know that an undead army is marching for Derse, you can tell that something terrible is arriving just from the strange side-effects large amounts of dark magic has on the environment.

You turn towards your companion, trepidation written all over your face. Kanaya mirrors your expression. “Are you ready for this?” You ask, raising your voice just a bit to be heard over the howl of the winds.

Kanaya simply gives you a tight nod. You return the gesture before facing forwards again, toward the rest of the city in front of you. The black, hard as iron vines are nowhere to be seen now. Perhaps the Condesce recalled them so her army would have an easier time invading.

You refuse to let that happen.

“Salt of the earth, guard this home…” You close your eyes, imagining the right runes inside your mind. Then, you begin tracing it with your fingers into the space in front of you. “While I’m here, while I roam, for good of all, this bond begins…” You then snap your eyes open, feeling an electric shock of energy flow through your body as a bright green runic shield is formed at the tips of your fingers. You raise your hands above your head and the symbols follow where your palm is facing. “By my will, with no harm to none- by earth power, this spell is done!”

In one fluid motion, you bring your hands down into the earth and the symbols once again follow your movements. A moment passes before a gust of air makes the grass lean away from you as the symbols are scorched into the earth around you.

Beneath your fingers, you can feel the pulse of life just under the surface of the land. You feel connected to everything, like you are but an extension of the world under your hands.

But you also feel the slow rot the undead bring as they get nearer, threatening your connection. Threatening your barrier. 

Kanaya then joins you inside the inner circle and she goes through the same motions. “Salt of the earth, guard this home, widen the berth, widen this dome, with my aid, longevity I bring…” The jade blood gracefully raises her palms in the air much like you did, before landing beside you with her hands in the dirt. “By my will, with no harm to none, by earth power, this spell is done!”

Another moment passes and the large circle you initially created is widened in diameter with Kanaya’s supporting spell.

You glance over at her, knees dug into the ground, both arms pressed firmly against the floor. It’s better to keep as connected to the spell as you can to ensure it stays up. You like to imagine it in your head as you pushing against a door to keep it closed.

The troll simply gives you a nod and a smile. You smile back.

Then, you turn your attention back to the earth, closing your eyes as you concentrate.

In the back of your head, you’re praying for everyone else’s safety back inside.

»»———— ☽ ————««

Deep below, in the dungeons of Derse, you set up a cleansing circle on the floor. You and Jane have picked up the carpet and rolled it off to the side so you can draw on the floor. Before you left the library, you also made sure to pick up the ingredients you needed to do the spell.

Ever since you descended though, neither of you have said a single word to each other. Not that you need to, attempting small talk seems to be in poor taste considering your circumstances. Still, the silence that hangs in the air makes you even more anxious than when you were facing down your ancestor.

So instead of letting your mind wander, you focus on the task at hand.

The sigils you’re drawing on the ground are taking a lot of time because of the complexity of the spell you’re about to do. You can’t mess up a minor detail or it could backfire wildly.

Eventually, you do manage to finish up the drawing. As you move on to lighting the incense and candles you brought along, Jane finally talks to you. “Why are you willing to go this far for us?” She asks. Her tone reminds you of a small squeak-beast.

“I… Well, I suppose part of my reasoning is shellfish, in a way.” You answer carefully, eyes focused on the match you’re attempting to light. “I do genuinely want to help you guys because I think it’s the right fin to do. But I’ve also had enough of how my ancestor rules back in Alternia. I’ve… I’ve walked a-monk-st the trolls we’re supposed to be governing in secret and… Not all of them are as fortunate as I am. As fortunate as they should be. In a twisted way, this is my chance to finally _do_ something good. If they do manage to cull the Empress… Well, I’m naturally next in line and I want to prove to myself that I can handle the responsibility that comes after all of this. A part of me wants us to win for my own reasons.” You sigh, lighting each candle using the one you lit. “More imminently, not dying is also a pretty strong motivator for wanting to win this fight.” You add as an afterthought.

It gets quiet in the room again, and your stomach turns at the human’s lack of a reaction to your confession. When you look up at her, you find Jane staring at you, face lit faintly by the candle in her own hands. “Why were you asking?” You find yourself saying.

Jane looks away, embarrassed. She moves to continue her work. “I was just wondering since the other two trolls seem to have some connection that motivates them to fight a battle that isn’t entirely theirs. It just made me think…”

“Think what?” You pry. Your interest is mildly piqued.

The blue-eyed human shrugs. “I don’t know. I never really thought much of the troll race aside from being a constant problem to us humans for as long as we’ve coexisted. It just baffled me that _you_ of all people would sacrifice so much to make things right.”

It’s your turn to shrug, tipping your candle to let the wax drip to the floor before placing it on top to keep it in place. “I guess I can understand your con-fish-ion. It looks like I don’t have anyfin to gain out of this. But what about the others? Are you just as perplexed by them as you are with me?”

Jane meets your gaze for a moment before averting her gaze again. “I’m not sure yet. Are Dave and Karkat-?” She asks but before she can finish her sentence, she cuts herself off, another embarrassed expression crossing her face.

You laugh. “As far as I’ve observed, they dolphinitely got some connection.”

Jane simply nods in response. She doesn’t say anything else, continuing the rest of the preparation in silence. You honour it because you feel like the human has got a lot of things on her mind.

Soon, you’re sitting cross-legged in front of each other inside the circle. You reach your arms out to her. “Are you ready for this?” You ask. Jane nods, placing her hands on your upper arm just beneath your elbows. You hold onto her arms much in the same way.

With a nod, you close your eyes. You channel the innate magic within you and Jane does the same. After a moment of concentration, you begin to feel the faint pulse of her life force where your skin is touching.

You begin chanting in sync with the human. The spell has begun.

The beginning of the end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ... Jane x Feferi rarepair anyone? 👀


End file.
